The Village
by Aggie Escott
Summary: Hotch and Reid drive to Vegas to visit Diana, but the desert isn't all that it seems. Reid/Hotch centric. Please review darlings.
1. Nevada

**THE VILLAGE  
**Chapter 1  
Nevada

"_**You should not see the **__**desert**__** simply as some faraway place of little rain. There are many forms of thirst.**__**" - William Langewiesche **_

The drive was going to take the best part of a day across the Nevada desert. Hotch wanted to visit Reid's Mum, and the last case was only three hundred miles or so east of Vegas. It had been a good case, solved before the UnSub could kill again, and the whole team were given a week to do what they wanted, unless a new case came up. It seemed like an ideal opportunity to visit Diana.

Reid took the first turn in driving. It was blazing hot, and they had the roof down. Hotch had his head back on the head rest, eyes shut, enjoying the feel of the warm air rushing past his face.

'Perfect.' he murmured. He reached over into the back of the car and got a can of Coke. He opened it and offered it to Reid.

'Cheers.' he responded, as Hotch got a second can. 'Bit warm though.'

'Sorry about that.' grinned Hotch. 'We should have hired an RV.' He took a drink.

Reid grinned. This was wonderful. A holiday with Hotch. They had booked into a hotel in the heart of Vegas, and Reid planned to take Hotch to some of the places he went as a teenager.

'Do you want me to drive for a bit?' Hotch asked. Reid jumped out of his reverie back to the present. He pulled over to the side of the road.

'Ok, your turn for a few miles.'

Reid got out and walked round to the other side, Hotch shuffled across into the driver's seat. As soon as Reid was in the car, Hotch put his foot down.

'Even more perfect!' he said, breaking the speed limit on the long straight interstate highway. Reid's eyes were open and huge.

'It's....erm.....' He didn't feel comfortable asking Hotch to slow down. Ok they were on holiday together, but it was hard to switch from boss/subordinate mode to friends and equals mode. But Hotch read the fear in his eyes.

'We won't hit anything!' he smiled happily, but slowed down anyway. Reid visibly relaxed. Hotch laughed, and the sound was good to hear. Hotch rarely socialised outside work, and there was little enough to laugh at in work.

But he was right. The grey snake of the highway cut through the grey/brown of the desert, with hardly a stunted tree to break the monotony. There really was nothing to hit. They hadn't passed another car in the last thirty miles or so, and that one had been stopped outside a dusty diner.

"Last watering hole for over one hundred miles" the sign had said. Did that mean there was another diner stuck out here? Reid couldn't imagine there being one now until they reached the outskirts of Vegas. It was an old sign. Maybe there was one when the sign was written.

'Reid?' Hotch said, and Reid realised that he had been falling asleep.

'Huh?'

'It looks as if there might be a storm up ahead.' Hotch said.

Reid looked at the sky and was surprised. Black skies were almost unheard of in the desert, and rain? He doubted it. But Hotch was right. It did look dark up ahead. Hotch stopped the car, and they put the roof up. It felt almost claustrophobic in the car now.

'We can stick on the road or drive cross country around it.' Hotch said. 'It shouldn't be too difficult to skirt it. We could find the road on the other side. Or we could drive straight through it.'

'Let's go round.' Reid said. 'Is it me, or is it getting cold.'

'It is. I thought it was my imagination now the roof is up. There's a jacket on the back seat if you want it.'

Reid reached over and slipped his arms into the jacket. It felt better, but he couldn't understand how he could be cold in the Nevada desert.

The car bumped as Hotch took the car off the road onto the sandy ground. Reid looked behind him at the rising dust. Hotch drove at right angles to the high way in an attempt to circumvent the storm. After about ten miles he stopped the car again. Reid was asleep.

'Hey Reid.' he said, shaking his shoulder. 'The storm is travelling in the same direction as we are. Should we go through it, or go back to the road. I don't know much about these Nevada storms.'

Reid sat up straight in his seat in surprise. 'I can't believe this. I don't know much about them either.' he said. He got his camera off the back seat and snapped a photograph. 'I hope we won't hit a tormado.'

'Great!' said Hotch. He started the car again, and turned towards the dark patch ahead. They couldn't out run it. They were going to have to hit it head on.

It was really quite cold now. Hotch shivered slightly wishing he'd put two coats in instead of one. Reid had said it was always hot in Nevada. Well, not today it wasn't.

As they approached the storm, the clouds began to be lit up by lightening. Hotch could taste the ozone in the air, and it was suddenly very dark. He wished he had stayed on the road. He didn't much fancy getting lost in a storm in a desert with absolutely no equipment – not even a coat.

'It is probably going to be a dry storm. Plenty of lightening, but no rain. There can't be rain!'

'Reid, is there any cell signal?' he said. 'Try calling your Mum's place and tell them we're going to be late.'

Reid checked his phone. 'No signal.'

Hotch leaned over and switched on the heater. The rush of warm air was a relief.

'What on earth?......' Reid exclaimed. 'Hotch, stop the car.'

Hotch did, 'What is it?'

'Hotch, it's snowing!'

'It can't be!'

The two men got out of the car. Reid was right. It was snowing. Huge wet flakes melted on Hotch's bare arms. He quickly got back in the car again.

'I don't believe this!' Reid said. He opened the window and put is arm out. 'Hotch, we need to get moving. The wind is coming up.'

He closed the window and Hotch started the car up again. He switched on the headlights. It was hard to believe this was the summer and it was three in the afternoon. He drove faster across the rough terraine. The wind started in earnest, and Hotch could feel it tugging at the car. He had a nasty gut feeling, and tried to drive faster through the darkness, but without being able to see any land marks, he wasn't even sure he was driving in a straight line. The heater as blowing at full capacity, but he was still shivering.

He slowed the car right down. Reid was sitting forwards in the car, hanging onto the dash.

'Should we stop and wait for it to pass?' Reid asked. The wheels skidded on the snow.

'I think we are going to have to.' Hotch said. 'I can't see where I'm driving. He stopped the car and the two men sat shivering. The snow was settling fast and Hotch turned off the engine before the exhaust pipe became covered by the drifting snow.

'I think we ought to both get into the back.' Reid said. 'We can warm each other.' He climbed over the back of his seat into the back of the car. Hotch got out, and pulled the seat forwards to get into the back with Reid. He pulled the door closed and they huddled together. Reid undid the coat and pulled it around both of them. Hotch tried to cover Reid with his body to keep him warm, but it was too cold for it to make a difference. He felt the car move with the buffeting wind, and he wondered how long it would take for them both to die of hypothermia.

In the Nevada Desert!

He thought that at any moment he would wake up and Reid would be still at the wheel of the car driving in the hot sun.

The wind threw itself at the little car, and pretty soon, the windows were covered with snow. The blizzard howled like a banshee trying to get in. After some time, Reid said,

'I don't think it is safe to stay in here. The car is being covered. We will suffocate.'

Hotch shivered and looked through a tiny patch of glass that had not yet been covered.

'We can't go out in that.' He said. 'We won't last five minutes.'

'We can't stay here!' Reid shouted at Hotch, who looked at him in surprise.

'If we get lost in that we're finished. We have a better chance here.'

Reid pushed the seat in front of him forwards. 'I've got to get out of here!' he said, his voice becoming higher as he began to panic. He opened the car door and staggered out into the blizzard.

'No! Reid!' Hotch shouted. 'Come back!'

He slid across the seat and got out of the car in pursuit.

'Reid! Where are you?'

Hotch wrapped his arms around himself in an effort to keep warm. His eyes stung as the wind blew ice crystals in his face.

'Reid!'

It was a white out. Hotch's eyes were sore now, and he smacked at his arms to try and keep the circulation going.

He saw a movement ahead and he pressed on towards it. Spencer was lying on his side, curled up in the snow. The ice crystals were settling on him. Hotch reached down to him.

'Reid,' he shouted above the storm winds. 'Reid, you have to get up!'

Reid turned his head and looked up at Hotch. His mouth moved as he spoke but the words were drowned out by the wind. Hotch knelt down in the snow.

'Reid we have to get back to the car. You will die out here.'

Spencer took Hotch's arm, and Hotch put his other arm around Reid's waist.

'It's this way' he said, and they started to walk. Hotch was shivering hard, and was disoriented. He wasn't sure where the car was. He peered through the storm to try to pick out the red of the car, but he knew that by now it would be covered with snow.

He thought he saw something. A light up ahead.

'Hey Spence.' he shivered. 'There's someone out here' He tried calling out to the owner of the light but his words were snatched away by the wind.

'Hey!' he yelled again. 'Can you help us?'

The light came closer. The man carrying the torch said, 'Follow me.'

The two men pressed through the howling wind to follow the man. Hotch was freezing, the snow settled on his skin and in his hair. Reid automatically put his arm around his friend and they supported each other. Every few yards the man with the torch stopped and waited for them to catch up. The wind twisted the light snow and formed miniature cyclones on the surface of the snowdrifts, and still more fell and added to the depth. Reid tried to remember if he had ever read about this happening before in the desert, but the cold had got to him. He couldn't even remember how they got there. They took another step into the wind. Suddenly Hotch was on his knees and then face down in the snow. Reid knelt and tried to lift him out of the drift.

'Help me!' he cried out to the man with the torch. The man stopped and looked round. He watched but did nothing to help.

'You have to get up, Aaron!' Reid said, trying to pull him into a sitting position.

'Please help!'

The man did nothing. Just stood there and watched while Reid pulled Hotch up and leaned him against himself.

'Come on Hotch. It's not much further.' although Reid didn't think he was going to be able to carry on for much longer. He was soaked through and he could feel ice settle on his eye brows and his lashes grew heavy with ice and he just wanted to lie down again. He knew he was crying, but the tears froze on his unprotected skin.

Hotch was too heavy, and he slipped out of his grasp. He knelt down beside him and tried to get him up again.

'Please help us.' he begged softly. He felt his vision fade to black and he passed out in the snow.


	2. It's Your Funeral

**THE VILLAGE  
**Chapter 2  
It's Your Funeral

_**A **__**photograph**__** never grows old. You and I change, people change all through the months and years, but a **__**photograph**__** always remains the same. How nice to look at a **__**photograph**__** of mother or father taken many years ago. You see them as you remember them. But as people live on, they change completely. That is why I think a **__**photograph**__** can be kind.**__**" – Albert Einstein**_

Reid slowly came round, and the first thing he noticed was that he wasn't cold any more. He had a headache, and this became evident when he tried to turn his head.

'It's ok, lie still. You are going to be alright.' a soft voice told him.

He opened his eyes and looked up at the woman who was holding his hand.

'Where am I? Who are you?' Reid asked. 'Where is the man I was with?'

'My name is Julia, and I am going to make you well again.' She lifted his head off the fluffy pillow and held a cup of water to his lips. He drank gratefully.

'Julia, where is the man I was with?' Reid asked again, trying to sit up. He winced as his head shot with pain. He looked around the room. 'Hotch?'

Julia put her hand on his chest and gently pushed him down again.

'Shh, now Spencer.' she said. 'Don't worry about him now. You need to sleep.'

'I'm not sleeping until I know where Hotch is.'

'But you must, my Darling.' she said soothingly. She touched his forehead with her small cool hand.

'I'm not your....' and suddenly speech became impossible. His eye lids became heavy and he slipped into a deep sleep.

Two men entered the room as soon as Reid was sleeping. They stood behind the woman and watched his chest rise and fall.

'He's not going to shut up about the other man.' she said. 'What shall I tell him?'

'The truth. He's dead.' one of them said. 'At least to him.'

'Did you leave him in the snow?' she asked, turning to the men. 'Is he dead?'

'That's men's work.' the other said. 'Not for you to know. You need to concentrate on your part in this.'

Julia smiled. Yes her part was going to be enjoyable.

-0-0-0-

He was still cold and it took a moment for him to remember what had happened. He was lying on the floor on a thin layer of damp straw, and he had been stripped to his underclothes. He was on his side facing the wall. He turned onto his back and looked around the room. It was dark stone walls running with water. There were no windows, so he guessed it was underground. Light was supplied by a burning torch on the wall beyond the bars that formed the ceiling of the cell, casting flickering moving shadows on the damp floor. He stood up shakily. His fingers and toes ached and his face was sore from the wind. He looked up at the only way out of the cell.

'Hey! Where am I?' He raised his hands to the bars. 'Show yourselves!'

'Be quiet!' a voice shouted back out of the darkness. 'It is not time to feed you yet.'

'Who are you?' he cried. 'Tell me! What's going on?'

There was no reply. Instead someone appeared at the opening above him.

'Where am I?' he asked again.

'We said be quiet!' and he pointed a hose through the bars at him. He had no where to run from the foul water that was sprayed over him. He cowered in the corner in an attempt to protect himself, but the water surged powerfully at him and soaked him. It was then he noticed a drain hole in the centre of the room where the water drained away. He crawled over to the corner and sat on the now sodden pile of straw and put his head in his hands.

_What the hell is going on? Where's Reid? Where was this place? _

He leaned back against the wall of his prison with his arms around his knees trying to think, as the dirty water dripped from his dark hair into a puddle on the floor.

-0-0-0-

'Do you fancy me?' the woman said.

Reid's eyes snapped open. 'Pardon?'

''Cos I fancy you.' She touched his chest while she spoke and Reid realised that his shirt had been removed. He smacked her hand away.

'Stop that!' He saw then that his fingers were bandaged. He started to remove the bandages and she placed her hand over his.

'No, leave them on. You have frost bite. We thought you might lose some, but our surgeon managed to save your fingers and toes.'

'What about the man with the torch? Who was he? He was out in the snow'

'There was no man with a torch, Spencer. You and your friend were alone out there.

She was bent forwards, and when he looked at her, her face was inches from hers.

'Where is Hotchner, my friend.'

'We didn't want you to know this until you are better, Spencer, but I'm afraid we couldn't save him.'

'What are you saying?' Reis grabbed her wrists and held her hands away from him. 'You couldn't save him?'

'He died.' She blinked back tears as she saw his distress. 'Our doctors tried to save him but he was too far gone.'

'But it was only a bit of snow!' he said. 'How could he die?'

'You were out there for a long time, Spencer. We found you after the storm. He was sheltering you, and took the full force of the blizzard. He saved your life, Spencer. He was a good man.'

Reid felt tears of grief build up in his eyes. 'His family? Have they been notified?'

'His funeral is later on today. Would you like to go?'

'His funeral? What about his family? You can't.........'

'You sleep now.'

Reid was getting annoyed. 'I want to see him! I want to see his body! I want to........' he faltered. 'I want to say good bye.'

She patted his hand patronisingly. 'You can say good bye at the funeral, Spencer.' she said.

Reid pushed her away and tried to get out of the bed.

'Please don't try to stop me.' he said. 'I want to see Hotch's body. I want a phone. I need to call our team.'

'Ah yes, your team.' A man had entered the room as Reid had got off the bed. 'In your identification it said that you were in the FBI. A group called the BAU. Well. you won't need to speak to them. The village elders have dealt with everything.'

'I want to see the village elders.' Reid said, suddenly feeling tired again. 'I want to see Hotch's body.' He took a step towards Julia. 'I want........' He fainted, and Julia caught him before he hit the floor. The man carried him back to the bed.

'You said there was a funeral! We don't have a lot of time to organise this.'

Julia tucked Reid into the bed.

'He suspects. I'm sure of it. He will never co operate if he suspects. If there is a funeral it will give him closure.''

'He'll co operate, don't worry.' He took a syringe out of his pocket, removed the safety cover and emptied the contents into the top of his arm. 'He will co operate or die.'

Julia followed the man out of the room into the corridor outside. The comfort of the hospital ward stopped at the door. Outside the walls were of a bland grey, nothing to break the monotony. Julia locked the door and turned away.

'Get out of hose clothes now, Julia. I don't want our men to see you dressed like that. I have a funeral to arrange.'

'Yes father.' she said and walked away back to her own room.

-0-0-0-

In the prison it was time to feed. But the offering was inedible, and he couldn't bring himself to put it in his mouth. He touched it with his tingling forefinger. It was slightly warm cereal in a thick soup that smelt awful. He put it on the floor and checked out the cup of water – grey dirty water. He wondered if it came from the same place as that which had been turned on him before. He left the food where it was and walked back to the corner. When he was hungry he would eat. Until then he was not going to chance it.

'Eat the food. Eat it or you will get none tomorrow.'

He went back to the bowl and tipped it down the drain. 'I won't eat this muck!' he shouted. 'Let me out of here! What have you done with Reid! Where is he?'

'Two days without food now. That was very foolish Agent Aaron Hotchner.'

He picked up the cup of water, and threw it at the wall. 'Let me out!'

-0-0-0-

Julia woke him up at one o'clock.

'If you want to go to the funeral you must come now and get ready.'

Reid opened his eyes slowly. 'I can't understand it. It was just a bit of snow. How can a bit of snow in Nevada kill someone so strong?'

Julia sat on the bed. 'Tell me about him.' she said. 'You loved him, Didn't you.'

Reid stared at her. 'I don't want to tell you about him.' he said angrily. 'I don't know you. I don't want to talk about him to a stranger. I want to see him!'

'I'm sorry but you cannot see him. It is a closed casket. He was badly damaged by the cold. That is why you couldn't see him. I'm sorry, Spencer.'

'Reid. I would rather you called me Reid.' he said.

'Ok, Reid. Would you like to borrow a suit?'

Reid nodded numbly. She pulled back the covers and reached for his hand. He accepted her hand and stood unsteadily by the bed. A suit was hanging on the back of the door. Quietly he got dressed in a daze, not understanding how this was happening. His lovely Aaron, destroyed in a blizzard, and he couldn't even say good bye.

Julia led him out of the room and down the corridor. He noticed how dim the lights were, and wondered if it was out of respect for Hotch. She led him out through a door into the brilliant Nevada sunshine. He looked up at the sky and it reminded him of his childhood – the good parts – the long happy summers playing cops and robbers with Jeff, the teenage years exploring the desert – he was going to show Hotch those places. He wanted to share these things with Aaron. Now he was dead.

Dead?

He saw the coffin and the straps which would lower it into the ground.

'Aaron....' he whispered.

He watched the rest of the short service through a mist of tears. Julia held his hand tightly the whole time.

It was over. He stepped forwards and looked down into the hole.

'Good bye, Aaron.' he said softly. Julia started to lead him away, Reid stopped.

'Where are his friends?' Reid said. 'Rossi, Emily, Morgan? Where are they?'

'They were invited.' Julia said. 'Maybe they weren't as good friends as they pretended to be when he was alive.' she said. 'Some people are like that. Come with us and have a drink. We all want to hear about him.'

He allowed himself to be led away from the grave. 'I can't believe it.' he said softly, tears streaming down his face. 'My Hotch.........'

-0-0-0-

'Where is Reid?' Hotch shouted. 'I want to see him!'

'We have something to show you, Hotchner. Look carefully.'

A hand appeared, and dropped through the bars an envelope. Hotch bent and picked it up and took it to his corner. One by one he looked at the pictures. The first one was of Reid lying in a bed, then one of him with a woman. Pictures of Reid happy, warm, comfortable, crying in a suit at a funeral under a hot blue sky, being comforted by the woman. Hotch looked again at the photographs, he spread them out on the floor in front of him.

'What have you done to him?' he shouted. 'Whose funeral was that?'

'Yours, Aaron Hotchner. We told him you were dead, and the funeral was the proof. You are no longer part of his life. He will forget you now.'

'He won't forget! You are delusional if you think you can just wipe his mind of me. Now let me the hell out of here!'

This time when the hose was turned on him the water was icy cold. He tried to grab the photographs of Reid but only managed to get one of them. The pressure of the water pushed him into the corner, and he watched in dismay as the other pictures washed away. He crawled into the corner and curled up with his back to the centre of the room, holding the picture to his chest, shivering in the icy cold as the last of the filthy water drained away.


	3. The Walk

**THE VILLAGE  
**Chapter 3  
The Walk

_**The word **____oubliette__** comes from the French, oublier, to forget**_

Hotch crouched in his corner and looked at the photograph.

_Spencer – where are you? Please, I am here – please don't leave me here. I didn't die!_

The photograph showed Spencer standing by a grave – his grave. This was his only proof that Spencer existed. He folded the picture up and hid it under the straw.

He shivered as he stood in the room that had become his world. He walked around the edge of the room, testing the walls, feeling for something to climb. If he could get to the bars, he might be able to find a way out.

The first wall was smooth, worn by the constant run of water. He ran his hand across the glassy surface – a small piece of reality in this unreal place. He reached up, and the wall was smooth like glass as far as he could reach. He moved to the next wall.

As he began to examine the wall, he heard a sound behind him.

Time for food.

He still hadn't eaten since he woke up in here. He had no idea how long he had been there, but this was the third time he had been offered food. They didn't feed him on the second day; that meant this was maybe the forth day.

He tipped the food into the drain and drank the water, and returned to the wall. He was starting to feel light headed, and thought he was going to have to start to eat soon. He ran his hand over the glassy wall. There was nothing. He leaned his head on the wall and sighed. There had to be a way out.

He moved on to the next wall

His clothes were drying now on his back, stiff and dirty. He was cold, and his fingers hurt. He wondered if it was caused by the cold.

He felt the wall, and his hand came into contact with a loose brick. He knelt down and worked on the brick, digging out the mortar from around it with aching fingers. Was this the way out of this oubliette? He held the brick and moved it back and forth, the constantly running water washing the mortar away down the drain.

He was suddenly exhausted. He pressed the brick back into the hole, and rested on his hands and knees, his head hung forward, his hair in his eyes. He breathed deeply of the foul air surrounding him, and crawled back to the pile of straw.

He retrieved the photograph and slid it carefully between his chest and his tee shirt, and curled up.

He felt drugged, and his last thought before he passed out was to stop drinking the water.

-0-0-0-

Reid sat on the bed with his head resting in his hands. There were so many questions he needed to be answered, and they washed through his head like a constant tidal wave, and he couldn't seem to catch them. He wondered if he was being sedated, and he decided to refuse food for a day so that he could think clearly.

Julia had locked him in again, and he was feeling claustrophobic. He went to the door and tried to open it. He shook it a few times, but he knew that it was a waste of time. He went back to the bed.

They had provided him with some books – Jules Verne, HG wells, John Wyndham, but he had read them all now. He asked for more books but Julia didn't believe that he had read the ones he had.

There was a window in the room, too high to see out of without standing on his bed. He stood on it now and stared out into the heat of the Nevada sun. The air seemed to move above the new grave in the grass outside as the heat rose from the ground. He felt tears come to his eyes as he remembered that Hotch had given his life to save him, and yet none of his so called friends had bothered to come and say good bye to him.

After everything he had done, and they rejected him.

He sat back down on the bed and cried bitterly.

-0-0-0-

Julia was with her father.

'What we are doing is cruel. I want to tell him.'

'You must not, Julia. You are the only one who is healthy enough to reproduce. We need him to give us a healthy child, or our village will die. You must not tell him, we need him to stay here.' he said forcefully. 'Are the drugs working?'

'It seems so. He hasn't asked any questions, except about his friend.' she said. 'Why can't we use his friend too?'

'You know why!' her father said angrily. 'We only need one, and he is the younger of the two. This whole thing was set up for him. The other was a mistake.'

'So can't we let him go? Does he have to die?'

'If he dies, it is his own fault. He is refusing food.

'May I see him?'

'Not a good idea. It might distract you from your task.'

'Please, father.'

'Very well. come with me.'

Julia had never seen the oubliette, although she knew a little about it. Some of her own had been left there – ones who were too far gone to live, and the laws forbade putting them to death. But it was not considered something for the delicate eyes of a woman.

But Julia was special. She had escaped the mental and physical deformity that affected so many of the villagers, and had been chosen for the task of producing a perfect child to revitalise the people. The village was dying, and her task was to save it.

She followed her father across the grass where the false grave was. She glanced at it and felt a rush of guilt. She had no idea that the evident loss of Hotchner would hurt Spencer so much. She asked if he could come out and sit by the grave later.

'Do you think it will help him forget about Hotchner?' he asked sarcastically.

The oubliette was housed in a stone and brick building at the extremity of the village. She had often wondered as a child what the building was for. Father had always said it was for storage.

Now she waited as Father knocked on the door and the jailer unlocked it from the inside and let them in.

The smell was awful; Julia put her hand over her mouth. The oubliette entrance was in the centre of the room, lit only by a flickering lighted torch. Julia took the torch from the wall and held it close to the bars. She was shocked at what she saw.

'Hotchner?' she whispered. The man rolled onto his back and looked up at her. He recognised her from the pictures with Reid. He stared up with his soft dark eyes and his look made her stomach wrench.

'What have you done to him?'

'He has to die, but we cannot kill him. He is starving himself. What you see is self inflicted.'

Hotch tried to speak but the drug he had been given had confused him, and his lips moved awkwardly and no words came.

_I will help you._

Her father led her away again.

-0-0-0-

Hotch stared up at the bars, unsure whether what he had seen was a hallucination or real. Then he remembered the photograph. He removed it from his chest and unfolded it. The picture was wet now, and the image on the paper was starting to wash away, but it was her. He noticed for the first time that his fingers were bleeding, and staining the picture. He replaced the picture, and crawled back to the loose brick.

It was almost free now. He tugged at it with bleeding hands and the brick slid away.

This wall was a lot rougher than the other two he had checked. There was very little water running here, and he thought that there may be an underground stream, and it was coming from the other way. He tried out the new foothold that he had made and reached up for a hand hold.

Climbing to the top was going to take time. He pressed his fingers into a small crevice and painfully pulled himself up. He groped in the darkness for the next hand hold.

It occurred to him that when he reached to top there was no going back. Climbing down would be impossible. His foot slipped from the dent where he had placed it and his stomach knotted as he pressed against the wall to stop himself from falling.

His heart was beating a little faster as he slowly climbed towards the bars.

-0-0-0-

Reid was standing on the bed looking out of the window when Julia came back across the grass with her father. She looked red faced as if she had been crying, and he hoped that she would come to him straight away so that he could find out why.

He hadn't seen anyone else since he had arrived except standing around the grave at Hotch's funeral. It was odd that there were no other villagers. He thought at first that they were all working, but he thought he would have at least seen children.

But there was no-one. He needed to ask about that, he had to remember........

As they approached the grave where his Aaron was lying, she pointed to it and began animatedly to talk to the man she was with. Something was wrong, and he needed to find out what.

He sat down and thought about what was happening. He tried to recall the map that he and Aaron were looking at when they were driving. There were no villages marked as far as he could remember, but he knew that in his drugged state he could be mistaken.

He heard the door unlock, and Julia came into his room.

'Can we go for a walk?' he asked. 'I need some air.'

She looked at him – he did seem a little pale.

'Ok.' she said. 'Follow me.'

He followed her through the corridor and out into the desert heat. He wondered how it could have snowed here. He walked to the grave and looked down at it.

'I'm sorry, Aaron, this is my fault.' He knelt by the grave and placed his hands on the soil. 'I'm sorry.'

Julia put her hand on his shoulder. 'He's gone, Reid. You have to forget him.'

He turned on her. 'I will never forget him. I loved him!' he shouted. She took his hand.

'I know. I am sorry.'

They walked across the grass.

'Where are the children?' Reid said suddenly.

Julia hesitated. Then, 'They are at school.' she said. Reid nodded, but for some reason, he didn't believe her.

They walked on together through the trees at the edge of the green.

-0-0-0-

Hotch clung to the wall of the cell, breathing heavily. He was almost there, and he reached out for the bars.

He readied himself, then gripped with the other hand, and pushed himself off the wall. He hung in space for a second or two, then he moved one hand onto the next bar. Again he stopped, weakened through lack of food.

Suddenly a voice broke the silence. He had been seen. He looked up and a man was standing on the bars. He took a step and stood on Hotch's aching fingers, twisting his feet and grinding his hands into the metal of the bars. Hotch screamed and felt blood run down his hands and along his arms. The man stood away, and Hotch tried to move a hand to get back to the relative safety of the wall.

He couldn't move his hands. The man reached for the hose. Hotch had a moment to register that the man had too many fingers, when he stood back on his hands and turned the hose on him.

Ice cold water hit his body and he screamed in pain again as the man ground down on his already injured hands. Then he stepped away, and Aaron's hands slipped from the bar and plummeted fifty feet to the hard floor. He landed on his shoulder and searing pain shot through him as he heard the crack of his collar bone and arm break. He lay still on the floor where he landed, trying to catch his breath, trying to control the pain. He saw his corner with the wet straw and painfully and slowly he dragged himself towards it.


	4. The Women

**A/N - Noncon**

**THE VILLAGE  
**Chapter 4  
The Women

"_**In the transmission of human culture, people always attempt to replicate, to pass on to the next generation the skills and values of the parents."**_

_**Gregory Bateson **_

'What's in there?' Reid asked pointing to a low brick building on the edge of the village.

'It's for food storage. We are self sufficient.' She said.

'I'd like to take a look.' Reid said, letting go of her hand and running towards the door. She broke into a run after him.

'Reid! No!' She caught up with him at the door. 'It's locked.' she said. Reid shook her hand off his arm.

'I don't want to stay here. I want to leave.'

'You can't leave, Reid. You're not well enough.'

He turned to her. 'I am leaving.' he said, and walked away from her.

That was when he heard the scream. He ran back to the door again.

'There's someone in there.' he said, shaking the door. 'Someone needs help.

'Stop it Reid.' she said pulling his hand away. He turned to face her.

'Where is everyone?' he asked. 'Where are the children? I'm leaving. There's no one here to stop me. Hotch is dead. There's nothing here for me.'

He turned from her and walked out into the trees surrounding the village.

'Come back! Please come back.' But he ignored her and carried on walking away.

He knew the car was out here somewhere. Now there was no snow it should be easy to find. He had a glimpse in his memory of sitting by Hotch in the car looking forward to a holiday with him. He was planning on telling him during that week how he felt about him; that he loved him. He felt the tears well up as he was brought back to the present – the universe that he no longer shared with him. He wiped the tear away angrily. He had to find the car.

In the distance he saw a thread of smoke rising skywards and decided to head for it. If there was a fire the chances were that there was someone there.

Then he heard the dogs....

He broke into a run, but he knew that he couldn't out run the dogs. There was no stream to put them off, no trees to climb.

He had to find the car.

Still heading towards the rising smoke, he ran. He was tired and woozy, and thought again that he could be drugged. He thought about the scream he heard. He had to find the car and contact the team. Something odd was going on, and he needed to find out what.

The smoke was still rising. He climbed to the top of the hill and looked down to the source of the smoke.

It was the car. Burnt out.

His last chance.

He turned and faced the dogs as they bounded up the hill towards him. He closed his eyes and curled up as tightly as he could and waited for them to attack.

-0-0-0-

Hotch lay on the straw on the floor. His hands were bleeding and the pain in his arm and shoulder was excruciating. There was no chance of him climbing the wall again. He would have to wait until Reid found him.

He pulled a bunch of the straw together and hugged it to himself in an effort to keep warm. He could feel the photograph against his skin as he lay shivering on the wet floor.

-0-0-0-

The lead dog leapt at Reid and knocked him back down the hill. Its teeth sank into his arm as he rolled down the incline towards the blackened car. He heard the dog yelp and the jaws loosen as he rolled on it, and its neck snapped under his weight. Two more dogs and several men appeared at the top of the hill. Reid was about to turn and run, but realised he didn't have a chance and the only outcome would be getting torn to pieces by the remaining dogs, which were now lying down but waiting for the order to attack.

Then he noticed the men. The three of them looked down at Reid. One of them ran down the hill and pulled him to his feet.

'You killed the dog, you little bastard!' he said through gritted teeth. He raised his fists, clenched together and brought it down on the side of his head. Reid staggered in shock and put his hand against his ear.

'I didn't m-mean t-to kill it.' he said. Blood was running down his arm now from the wounds inflicted by the dog. The other two dogs were standing now, ready to protect their owners. The big man dragged Reid back up the hill.

'We've finished being nice to you. Now we take what we want.'

Reid knew that struggling would just waste energy that he might need later. Meekly, he walked with the three men back to the village. One man carried the body of the dog, the other two dogs walked obediently next to their owners.

As they walked past the 'storage building', Reid again asked about the scream he heard. The man behind him pushed him onwards. There was no answer.

As he walked across the green, people were coming out of their houses to watch him be escorted past. He noticed that the villagers looked unhealthy and some had deformities that he had never seen before. But still no children.

He looked around for Julia. She was standing at the back of a group of men and women next to the building where he had been living. He looked at Hotch's grave as he was shoved past. There were some men just standing on the newly dug earth, their feet kicking against the soil. Reid couldn't take that. He broke away from his escort and ran to them.

'Get off the grave! Show some respect!' He pushed at the men trying to get them away. 'Aaron was a good man – he died for me, now get off the grave!'

Hands pulled him back and dragged him away. He was swung round to face the men who had caught him. Two others stood in front of him. Reid noticed that the villagers had gone quiet.

'You killed my dog.' he said.

'I didn't mean to kill it.' Reid said. 'It bit me and I fell down the hill. It died when I rolled over it. It was an accident.'

The man punched Reid full in the face, and he fell back, dazed and shocked at this sudden change in them. The villagers were clapping and cheering as he wiped blood from his face with a shaking hand. The dog owner walked away, Reid was dragged to his feet, and he was taken back to his prison. They threw him across the room, and closed the door. He heard the lock snap across, and he sat on the bed, trying to think.

What was wrong with his head? Why had he allowed them to keep him here without a word of protest?

And Hotch..... they had buried him on the green as if he really was of no importance. The team didn't show up for Hotch's last good bye. Had they been told about his death? They should come for him, but they wouldn't have missed him yet......

Reid's thoughts were a mess of confused images, and he was unable to sort them out. He couldn't understand what was going on.

He went to the bathroom and took off his shirt. The dog had bitten through the cloth and his arm was blood soaked. He washed the blood off his skin and examined the puncture wounds. He checked his nose and mouth where he had been punched. There was dried blood under his nose and his lip was split.

There was no visible damage to his ear, but he could hear it ringing. He felt sick and dizzy, and staggered back to the bed and laid down his face in the pillow.

He felt helpless, and wished Aaron was there. He knew he wasn't reacting properly, and he felt frustrated that his brain just wouldn't think.

He thought he was being drugged, but he didn't know how. Even when he refused the food, he still wasn't lucid.

He thought of Aaron lying dead under the village green, and he cried himself to sleep.

-0-0-0-

Hotchner woke up cold and in pain. He wondered for a moment what had awakened him. He turned onto his back and looked around in the gloom.

Three men were standing in the cell. Hotch stood up and faced them, his right arm useless, supported by his left. He said nothing, waiting to see what would happen.

'You no longer exist.' said one of them.

'So', another said, 'we can do what we want with you and there's no punishment.'

'You must let me go. I am a Feder..........' The punch to the stomach doubled him up, and he staggered back a step. One of them got hold of his hair and pulled him up again.

'As I said. You don't exist.' He kneed him hard in the groin and let the man go. Hotch fell onto the dirty wet floor, writhing in pain. He turned onto his back and drew up his knees in an attempt to lessen the pain. He coughed.

'Why are you ......doing this to me?' He said softly, fearfully.

'On your front.' A kick to the side. Hotch rolled onto his front and tried to get onto his hands and knees. But the three men were upon him, ripping at his clothes, clawing at his skin.

When the first raped him, he screamed with a pain he had never experienced before. He fought and struggled to free himself from the two holding him down but he was weakened by hunger and damaged by the fall. He heard them excitedly urging their fellow. By the third rape he was semi conscious and bleeding.

When they had finished they began again, Hotch wondered if they might do this until he died beneath them. He stopped struggling and concentrated on staying alive.

When they had finished with him, they looked down on the beaten and violated man and laughed.

'Until tomorrow then, Federal Agent!'

Hotch crawled painfully back to his corner and hugged the pile of wet straw.

-0-0-0-

Reid was woken up by someone shaking him.

'Julia?'

'You won't be seeing Julia any more.' a man's voice said. 'She was the best qualified, but she let you escape. Now the other women will have you when they want. If you do not give them what they need, it will be forced from you. Morag is waiting.' Before Reid knew what was happening, the man had handcuffed his wrists to the end of the bed.

He left the room, and Morag entered. She could have been beautiful with her long dark hair, if it hadn't been for the deformity of her jaw.

'I am the chief elder's daughter.' she said. 'I have first go.'

She pulled at Reid's trousers and sat astride him. He looked at her in horror as she leaned forward and tried to kiss him.

'No! Stop!' He tried to twist away but Morag was strong, and held him still. Reid concentrated on not responding. He refused to be used like this. He lifted his legs and pushed her off him with enough force to knock her onto the floor.

'I will not submit to this!' he shouted. 'Are you listening?' he yelled at the ceiling. 'I will not go along with this – now let me go!'

Morag was sitting where she had fallen, and was crying. Reid turned to her.

'It's not you,' he said. 'But I can't be forced to do this.

'You can be, Spencer, and you will be.' she sobbed, and the door opened and the man came back in.

'How dare you treat my daughter thus!' he said, and smacked Reid's face as hard as he could. He helped her up, and with his arm around her, led her from the room.

Reid stared at the ceiling trying to fathom out what was going on. He absently rubbed at a sore spot at the top of his arm. Was this what they had imprisoned him for? He still couldn't think straight.

He wished Hotch was there.


	5. Julia

**THE VILLAGE  
**Chapter 5  
Julia

"_**Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin." - Frederick Buechner**_

After Morag had gone from his room, no-one else came to him that day. He was left with his wrists cuffed to the bed head, and he was given no food. At least if they offered him nothing, he would not have to refuse to eat it. But he couldn't refuse water for long, and he knew soon he would have to take a drink.

But not tonight.

He managed to get fairly comfortable under the covers, but in his mind thoughts wouldn't stand still. He kept thinking of the scream he heard coming from the storage building, and decided to find out what was in there the first chance he got.

-0-0-0-

Hotchner didn't move from his corner through long dark hours. He had forgotten what it felt like to be free, and accepted his fate. He thought about Spencer a lot, wondered what he was doing, if he ever thought about him. Sometimes he cried, lying there in the cold wet dungeon, with no hope of a way out; sometimes he laughed when he remembered things he and his friends had done. Somewhere there was a child whom he knew in the past, but not now. He was dead now, and so he didn't exist. The three men had told him that.

That was why he was bleeding and in pain. The men would be back soon. He needed to endure.

They had stopped offering him food now, and his stomach hurt. He had no water except that which ran on the walls, and this he had licked at, desperate for moisture.

He shivered. He guessed his body temperature would soon drop so that he wouldn't feel cold. Then he really would die; that would be a good thing and end his suffering.

He carefully pulled the picture out from under his shirt. It had been torn when the men had attacked him, and he held the pieces together and looked at Reid standing by his grave.

That was proof that he had died.

He wiped tears off his cheeks and wondered if it was day or night. The constant dim flickering had made his eyes sore and he was having difficulty seeing. If he lost his sight, then he would not be able to see the picture.

He wished he could tell Reid he was here. He hid the picture under the straw and hugged it to his chest. The men would be there soon. He needed to rest.

-0-0-0-

Reid had a frightening dream. Aaron was buried in the ground but he was still alive. He could hear him crying out for help, but the ground was hard as iron and he couldn't reach him. He clawed at the hard ground as Aaron's cries grew fainter as he slipped away, and the tears he shed dripped onto his bleeding fingers as he fought to reach him before it was too late. Reid woke up with his arms twisted, and his face wet with sweat and tears.

He lay in the dark thinking about him, and he realised that whatever drug they were giving him, and however it was being administered, it was preventing him from mourning for Aaron.

He wiped the tears away and as he lay in the darkness thinking about his feelings for him, and about what he had planned to tell him on this holiday.

_I loved you, Aaron Hotchner, and I never had the chance to tell you just how much, how important you were to me._

When the sun came up, he heard people moving around outside. He could no longer reach to look out of the window now. But the villagers were no longer hiding away.

He watched the light of the sun slowly swing across the ceiling and waited.

When the sun beam was at its height, he heard the door unlock.

The woman didn't say anything; she approached Reid and tried to remove his clothes. He just wanted to hold her wrists and tell her no, but like Morag, she was a strong woman, used to hard physical work. He tried to push her away, but she was ready for him. She pulled at his clothes and touched his face.

'I can understand your resistance,' she said suddenly. 'but believe me we will have what we want from you.'

'No' he said gently. 'This is not right.' He squirmed beneath her and resisted.

'Please, do this for me.' she begged with tears in her eyes. 'I am nothing in this village, but if I can have a healthy child, I will have status.'

'When I father a child', Reid said angrily, 'it will be for love and not to increase someone's social standing. Now get off me now!'

The woman got off the bed. 'Your rejection of me will have consequences, you know.' she said. 'We will have your DNA in a way that is a lot less pleasant.'

'You can not force me. I am sorry.'

'We can. And you will be.'

She turned away from him. She didn't want him to see her cry. 'I thought you would like me.' she said. 'I'm not like Morag.'

'And you can cut the emotional blackmail.' Reid called after her as the door closed behind her. He breathed out heavily, wondering what she meant by saying they could force him.

-0-0-0-

When the men came Hotchner was sleeping. It wasn't real sleep. He was thirsty and hungry, and kept fainting and passing out. The sound of their feet on the floor woke him. He forced himself onto his hands and knees, trying to get up.

One of the men pushed him onto his side with his foot.

'Remember you do not exist. We buried you.'

'You belong to us.'

The third man kicked him onto his back. Hotchner tried to defend himself with his good left arm. The man kicked his arm back. Hotchner groaned with pain as two of them pulled him to the middle of the room by his ankles. They twisted him onto his front and raped him in turns. Hotchner drew blood from his lip as he bit down trying to ease the pain. He felt something tear and he cried out as blood flowed unchecked. He fainted at one point but they woke him up again. Their fun wasn't complete without him moving under them.

Women were forbidden to these men.

Hotchner turned his head to the side and stared at the wall. He tried to capture happy thoughts and keep hold of them, but they were elusive as shadows and he felt every thrust, every tear as the three men abused and violated him.

He felt hands pulling his hair as the second man finished, and the third took over again. When they had finished they left him crying, prone in the dirt that was now his home. This time he couldn't move when they had finished, and he fainted where they dropped him.

-0-0-0-

Reid was awake when the chief village elder came in. He had with him an entourage of men and women, watching, learning.

Today Spencer was to find out how they were drugging him. Today they didn't wait until he was asleep. While four men held him down, the chief stuck a needle in his arm. He fought and squirmed against them but he was feeling dizzy already, and didn't stand a chance.

'Remember you were told that we would take what we want?'

Reid nodded. He saw Julia in the crowd. He tried to get her attention. She looked down, avoiding his eyes.

'Well this is how we do it.'

Suddenly Reid felt a paralysis overwhelm him. he couldn't speak of resist as he was stripped and laid down on a wire frame. He felt horror as another was placed on top of him and he was secured spread eagled between the frames. He was carried out of the room and along a corridor. There was a room at the end. Reid couldn't see into it – all he could see was the floor.

The frame was attached onto four metal poles and he was suspended five feet from the floor. He heard a clanking sound as the frame was locked in place.

He couldn't move and he was terrified. Someone off to his side spoke.

'We can not proceed until the drug has worn off. This will take about two hours, during which time you will remain where you are. Then we will continue.'

He heard something heavy being wheeled across the concrete floor, then the lights were turned out and the door locked.

-0-0-0-

'Please don't do this father. There has to be a better way.'

'This is to save the village, Julia. We gave you the first chance and he ran. I am sorry.'

'Of course he ran. He was afraid, and in grief over his friend. Please, let us tell him about the other man. He might co operate then.'

'The other man is dead. There is nothing to tell.'

'He's not dead though is he?' she said. 'He's in the oubliette.'

'Which means "forgotten". He is dead to anyone who might care.'

'Can't we get him out?' Julia begged. 'Please don't do this to Spencer. He could die.'

'He won't die.'

'The last one did.'

'He had a weak heart. We couldn't have known. Listen to me, girl.' he shouted. 'Know your place. The oubliette is not a word for your lips. It is men's business. As for this man, he has one fate, and only one. Now go to the women's quarters, and if you behave you might still have a chance at producing a child.'

Julia hung her head. 'I am sorry father.'

She watched as he filled a syringe and put the safety cover on the needle. 'It is time. Go!'

Julia left but she didn't return to the women. She waited outside to see what was going to happen. Her father and the village doctor went to the building where Reid was waiting. She wanted to see what was happening so she followed. There were no windows in the room, so she listened at the door.

There were few words said, but she heard Reid protest, and the sound of clanking metal. Then a scream.

It frightened her. Reid's scream was long and drawn out. She heard the sound of machinery and Reid draw breath. Then he screamed again...... this time he didn't stop. She heard footsteps towards the door and she ran and hid.

Her father and the doctor exited the room and locked the door. She could hear the frightful cries from the room, pausing just long enough to draw breath, and they began again.

She waited until her father was out of sight, and she went to the door.

'Spencer!' she called above his screams. 'Spencer, I am going to try to free you.' She tried the door but it was solid. There was no way she would open it. 'I need to get the key.'

'What the hell are you doing, girl?'

Slowly Julia turned round and faced her father. 'Please let him go. I'm sure I can get him to cooperate.'

'You stupid girl!' he raged. 'Do you realise you are putting the future of the village in jeopardy with your idiotic sentimentality.'

'But he could die!'

'What is one death as compared with the life we have here. If we give this up we're all finished.'

Julia took a step away from her father. 'We should be finished. And it's two deaths – and that's just this time. What about all the times we've failed? How many deaths is that?'

He grabbed hold of her by the arm.

'I am locking you in your room girl, until the elders can meet regarding you. And if you end up in the oubliette, you can only blame yourself.'

He pulled her across the green and over the fresh grave, to the women's rooms. He opened the door to her room and shoved her inside.

'Think about what you have done and prepare an apology. I can't save you child; it is out of my hands now.'

He locked her in, and wiped the tear from his eye.


	6. Morag

**THE VILLAGE  
**Chapter 6  
Morag

**_Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. _**_- __**Friedrich Nietzsche**_

'Julia? Are you in there?'

'Morag! Thank the gods!' Julia said. 'Morag, can you let me out?'

'I can not let you out, Julia. We will be forgotten if they find out.'

'Morag, please listen!' Julia said desperately. 'What we are doing is wrong. These men are dying. It is wrong.'

'We have to think of the village.' Morag said.

'The village is finished, Morag. We need to get out!'

'That is the talk of a traitor, Julia. You must not say such things. You will be forgotten!'

'It is too late now. Is the key in the door?'

'Yes.'

'Please, unlock it. There is no keyhole on this side. Please, let me out. No one will know it's you.'

'I can not. I will be forgotten if the elders find out.'

Morag was torn, terrified of the oubliette, yet she had heard the screams of the man in the extraction room. Suddenly she made a decision. Carefully she turned the key and ran back to her room. She sat on her bed and tried not to cry. If she was caught crying they would ask why.

She could not lie to them.

Julia slowly pushed the door open. There was no one about. In the distance she heard a scream, and she felt sick. She had to get the key and free him before his heart gave out.

They always died.

And the man in the oubliette – she had to free him too if it wasn't too late. It had been almost a week and they didn't often last that long.

She locked the door again and put the key in her pocket. It would take a while to find out she had gone if they couldn't open the door.

She crept along the passage to the women's entrance. The key would be either in her father's cloak or on his desk.

There were no guards on the elders' suite. Stealing was unheard of in the village. They didn't even have a word for it. As she crept silently towards it, three villagers walked down the steps. She crouched in the shadows of the building and held her breath. As she hid there she wondered why she was risking her life for a man she didn't know. But then she realised. He had a kind of ethereal beauty that had not been seen in the village for a long time. He didn't deserve to die on the machine.

She watched the three villagers walk quickly to the storage building, and then she knew. The man in the oubliette was alive still.

That gave her hope.

As soon as they were out of sight, she ducked into the building.

She had never been inside here before and she didn't know which room was her father's. She would have to check each one.

The first door was open. and carefully she peered inside. Sub Elder Carley was at his desk. He had a list in front of him, and she watched as he crossed three names off. He turned and while he attached the list to the wall, she ran past the door unseen.

The next door was closed. She listened carefully, checking that there was no one in there. Then she turned the handle, and holding her breath, she opened the door and went inside.

It was not her father's office, but she saw something on the desk that excited her. Three objects that the men were carrying when they were brought to the village. She didn't know what they were, but she put them in her pocket. Spencer might be able to use them.

She went back to the door and glanced out into the corridor. Carley was leaving the building, and she waited until he was out of sight before moving silently down the passage to the next room.

-0-0-0-

These men wanted the same from Hotchner as the others. This time they did not need to hold him down; he was too weak to resist any more. He had lost a lot of blood from internal injuries and his arm was giving him a lot of pain. He made sounds of agony. When he fainted, they didn't bother to wake him up.

-0-0-0-

The next room was slightly open and empty. She entered cautiously and softly closed the door behind her. On the desk was a picture of herself with her father.

This was her father's office.

Quickly she searched the desk for the key to the room where Spencer was. There were several keys on the desk, and she put all of them into her pocket. She prayed to her own god that one of them was the right one. Then she began to search the draws. It was as she stood up after searching one of them that she saw her father standing in front of her.

Her heart missed a beat as they stared at each other for a moment.

Then, 'How did you get out?'

'The door was unlocked.' she answered with a shaking voice. She hated lying to her father, but she could not implicate Morag.

'Who let you out, child? I know I locked the door.'

'Please, father, pretend you didn't see me.'

'Your actions will destroy the village, Julia. I must lock you in again.'

He pulled her round the desk. Julia picked up a paper weight from the desk and hit her farther with it. He staggered a few steps and clutched at his head. She hit him again, and he fell to the floor.

'I am so sorry, Father.' she said, and rolled him away from the door. He was alive, and she left him lying on his side against the wall. 'Forgive me......' She quickly went through his pockets and retrieved six more keys.

'Is he dead?'

Julia swung round in fright. 'Morag!'

'I heard what you told him, and thank you.' she said. 'I have been thinking about what you said, and you are right. We have become as the world from which we fled.'

'So you'll help me?'

Morag nodded. 'Let us go and free Spencer, and see if the other man still lives.'

Julia took one of the objects from her pocket. 'Do you know what this is?' she asked.

'I do not know what it is called, but I know it can kill people. I heard the elders talking about them. Spencer had one, and the other man had two.'

'So it's a worldly weapon?'

Before she could answer, there was a terrible scream, and the two women ran out of the Elders' Suite and, keeping to the trees around the village, they made their way around the green to where Spencer was.

-0-0-0-

Spencer was in agony. The IV in his arm was administering a drug of some kind, and his entire body was in pain. It felt like fire in his veins, taking the agony to every part of his body. He had no resistance to whatever the machine he was hooked up to was doing and although he tried, the screams escaped him involuntarily. His face and body were bathed in sweat, and blood from the dog bite dripped onto the machine that was beneath him. He could feel his own heart beat in his ears and his chest throbbed with each painful beat.

'Help me....' he whimpered into the empty room. 'Please help me.'

When he heard the key in the lock, he froze with fear.

-0-0-0-

Morag held the keys as Julia tried each one in the lock.

'It has to be one of these, Morag. This is all my father had.' Her hands were shaking.

'There are two more. Don't worry yet.'

Julia was starting to panic and couldn't get the key out of the lock. Morag moved her hands away and tried herself. The key turned and the lock slid smoothly back.

They were in!

-0-0-0-

He couldn't look round to see who it was, but as soon as she spoke he knew it was Julia.

'We are here to help you, Reid. Just don't move. I'm not sure how to get this off.'

The machine had implanted micro-thin tubes into the skin of Spencer's groin. Rather than try to extract them, Julia broke them off close to the skin. Spencer winced as the pressure ended bit by bit as she detached the tubes. While she did this, Morag removed the IV and the clips that held the frames together and she slid away the top one.

Very carefully they lifted Reid off the frame and turned him onto his back. His arms were outstretched and his head was back. He opened his eyes and groaned in pain as they moved him. His muscles screamed to be left alone. He lay on the floor for a moment as the blood rushed into oxygen starved areas of his body. He tried to get up, but he was weak and in too much pain.

'Reid, your friend is alive. When you are ready we can go to him.'

Reid stared at her in wide eyed shock. 'Alive? Where? why did.......? Hotch?'

Morag put a finger to Reid's lips.

'Shh now. As soon as you can walk, we'll take you to him.'

'I can walk now.' he said, struggling to his feet. 'Just help me a bit.' He winced in pain. It felt like needles sticking into his body all over.

'Before we go, I need to give you these.'

She took the weapons out of her pocket and gave them to Reid. He looked at them in amazement.

'Our guns!' he said. He leaned on the wall and checked the chambers. They were all full. He set a shell in the chamber of his, and gave the other two back to Julia.

'I need some clothes.' he said. Morag pointed to the other side of the room where his clothes lay in an untidy pile.

'They are over there.'

The women waited impatiently as Reid quickly and carefully put on trousers and shirt. He took Hotch's guns back and put them in his own pocket. The tubules were still in his lower body and they hurt. He longed to pull them out.

Then he took the container from the machine and tipped it onto the floor.

'Ok, I'm ready now.'

'First, give a scream once more so that they think you're still on the machine.'

Reid threw his head back and screamed very convincingly. With his arms across the shoulders of the two women, he left the room and went into the sun.

'Where's Hotch?' Reid whispered to the women as they crouched in the trees.

'He's in the oubliette.' Julia said. 'I am sorry I let you think he was dead, Reid. Now we have to get him out. It won't be easy. He is guarded until he dies.'

'Dies?' Reid said. 'What have they done to him?'

'Nothing. Once in the oubliette, though, he is officially dead.'

'My dream.......' Reid said out loud.

'Dream? You had a dream about the oubliette?' Morag said in surprise.

'Not exactly. I'll tell you when we're free of this place. We need to get Hotch. Come on. Show me.'

'He's in the storage room you saw.' Julia said.

'That was him screaming that day, wasn't it?'

Julia didn't answer. 'Come on, this way.' she said. Morag put her arm around Spencer's waist, and they followed her.

It was late evening, and when they arrived at the storage building, they decided to wait until it was dark. They hid again in the trees and waited. Reid watched as three men left the building and locked the door after them.

'Who are they?' he whispered.

'Most of the men of the village are not allowed to mate.' Julia said. 'When there is someone forgotten, they are allowed to take them; every day until they die.'

Spencer felt sick. 'Oh my god, Julia.'

Julia and Morag both looked away in shame. 'We are sorry.' Morag said. 'We were afraid to help you before.'

Spencer tried to hear if there were any sounds from inside the building, but it was solid stone and brick. It was unlikely that they would here.

'It is dark now.' he said. 'Let's get him out.'


	7. The Forgotten

**THE VILLAGE  
**Chapter 7  
The Forgotten

_**My biggest fear in life is to be **__**forgotten**__**.**__**" - Evita Perón **_

Hotchner needed to see the photograph but it was under his straw and he was not able to move now. He reached out his left arm towards it but couldn't reach.

_Help me – I need to see the picture – I need to prove that there is something outside of this place – I need to prove that Spencer exists somewhere......_

Hotchner started to cry

-0-0-0-

At last it was dark outside. Spencer was desperate to get into the building and get Hotch out of there. He couldn't believe what the women had told him. Hotch was officially dead, so they could mistreat him as they wished. He wasn't even sure he was still alive..........

'We can go now.' Julia said. 'We can get him.'

'Aaron.' Spencer said. 'He is called Aaron Hotchner. We call him Hotch.'

'Let us go then!' Julia handed Spencer some keys. 'I think one of these fit.' she said.

Julia and Morag watched as Reid tried all the keys in the lock. The fifth one he tried turned smoothly and the bolt slid silently back.

'We're in!' he whispered. The women ran over to him, and the three entered.

They were in a large empty room about twenty feet square. A man was sleeping in the opposite corner of the room. In the centre of the floor was a grating, and above that was a burning torch. Reid crept up to the sleeping jailer and pistol whipped him.

He stayed asleep.

He took the torch from its sconce and held it to the grating.

'Julia, wait outside with Morag, just in case we are caught.' He gave Julia the key. 'I'll get Aaron out.'

As the women obediently left, he knelt by the grating.

'Hotch! Are you there?' He noticed blood on the grating. Had Hotch tried to escape?

There was no answer, and the room below was very dark. There was a ladder on the floor. Reid opened the grating and lowered the ladder.

Reid slowly went down the ladder. The smell of human waste and dirt and blood was strong, and he put his hand over his mouth and nose. When he reached the bottom of the ladder, he held the torch in the air trying to find Hotch

He was lying prone stretched out, his hands reaching for something. He knelt at his side and touched him. He felt the cold flesh tremble beneath his hand.

'Hotch, it's Spencer. I've come to get you out.'

'No.' he whispered shakily. 'I am dead.... please don't hurt me'

Spencer pulled him onto his lap, and held his head against his chest.

'I will never hurt you, You are not dead, Hotch. You are free now.'

He felt his friend's body shake with emotion.

'Help me Spencer, help me.'

Aaron's skin was white and filthy. He was naked and bleeding and injured. His right arm hung uselessly and his collar bone was obviously broken. Reid fervently hoped that his mind was intact.

'Can you stand, Aaron?'

'Picture....' Aaron indicated the pile of foul rotting straw. Reid went to it and found a photograph under the straw. He was sickened by what he saw. A photograph of his own funeral. He folded it up and placed it in his pocket. Then he went back to Aaron.

He was valiantly trying to move. He was on his knees and left elbow, attempting to get up. Reid put his arm around him and helped him to get up. Aaron leaned on him, Reid taking his weight.

'Come on now, Hotch. Time to leave.'

He took a faltering step towards the base of the ladder and his legs gave way. Reid lowered him gently to the floor. He wasn't going to make it like this. He would have been able to lift him if not for the pain he himself was suffering.

He was going to have to ask the women for help.

'I am going for help. You are going to be fine, Hotch.' If only he could believe his own words.........

He stood and looked down on his friend; normally a strong healthy man, somehow he looked small amd helpless lying at his feet.

'Please don't leave me......'

'I'll be as quick as I can' he said, and climbed the ladder. There was no one about. The women were waiting in the trees.

'Were we too late?' Morag asked.

'Is he dead?' Julia looked as if she would cry.

'It's ok.' Reid said. 'He's alive, but too weak to get out. I need your help to get him up the ladder. Come on, quickly!'

The women didn't move. Reid reached out his hand.

'Quickly! Come on!'

'We can not go in there, or we will not be able to come out.' Julia said. 'We can only go in with permission.'

'To go in there is to be forgotten.' Morag said.

Spencer felt his world slipping away. 'Please, I came out. I'll make sure you do too.'

'We can not.' Julia said again, and the two turned to leave.

Spencer looked back at the open door, and back to the women, desperately trying to think of how he could persuade them. He grabbed Julia's arm, and Morag ran.

'Please, Julia. You have to help me. That man is very special to me.'

'You love him?' she asked, her eyes full of sorrow.

Spencer hesitated, unsure as to how she would react.

'Yes.' he said. 'I love him, but we aren't lovers.'

'Do you want to be?'

Again, Reid was not sure how to respond. He decided that the truth was the best option.

'Yes.' he said softly.

'Then I will help you.'

She put out her hand and Spencer led her into the storage room.

'My father showed me Hotchner when he first came here. He was refusing to eat.' she said with her hand over her mouth. 'We must hurry in case Morag tells the elders.'

Spencer went down a few rungs of the ladder and reached up for Julia.

'Come on.....Aaron needs you.'

'I'm afraid.' she said, holding back. 'This is forbidden.' He noticed that she was shaking, and was on the verge of tears.

'I promise I won't let anyone hurt you.' he said. 'Please....' He reached out his hand again. This time she started down the ladder.

'Well done!' Reid said, stepping off the other end onto the wet floor. He watched her come to the bottom, and turn to face him.

'This is horrible.' she said, her hand over her nose. 'I had no idea it was so bad.'

Reid was kneeling by Hotch.

'Aaron,' he said. 'I'm back, and I have brought someone to help us.'

Aaron turned his head and looked up at Reid. 'Please don't hurt me again. ......Please let me sleep.'

'Hotch, It's me, Spencer. I will never hurt you.'

Reid lifted him into a sitting position. Hotch cringed when Reid came close to him.

'Please, Hotch. I won't hurt you. Julia will help us.'

Between them, Reid and Julia got Hotch on his feet, but he was too weak to walk. They half carried half dragged him to the ladder. Julia began up the ladder backwards, with her arms around his chest, holding him tightly to her. Reid followed them, facing forwards, one arm around his hips. Gradually, one step at a time, they made their way up the ladder and out into the room above the oubliette.

Julia sat on the edge of the grating still clinging onto Hotch. He was on her lap, slumped forwards, his hair across his face, his lovely eyes closed. Gently Reid took his weight and lifted him off her. She saw there was blood on her dress.

'He's bleeding. What did they do to him?'

'He's been raped.' Reid said bluntly. 'We have to get out of here to somewhere safe.'

'I had no idea it was so awful.' Julia said. 'Even our own are put in the oubliette. I can't believe father would let this happen.

'Help me lift him.' he said.

They put his arms over their shoulders. He cried out when they moved his broken right arm. He was still unconscious as they started towards the door.

That was when they saw one of the village elders standing in the doorway.

'Father!' Julia breathed. 'Father I am sorry I hit you.'

Reid's hand was on his gun in his pocket. If necessary, he would shoot their way out.

'Morag Ffey told me what was happening. I will tell her I was too late.'

'Father?'

'Just go.' he said. 'Run and don't stop running.'

'But.....'

'Just run!'

'Come on, Julia, or do you want to stay.'

'If I stay I will be forgotten.' she said, looking at her father.

He nodded slowly. 'Go.'

They carried the unconscious man past Julia's father.

'Just one moment.' Reid and Julia froze. Had he changed his mind? Was it just a test?

He was removing his coat.

'Let your friend wear this.'

Gratefully Reid took the coat and Julia helped him dress Aaron in it. They buttoned the front closed, and carried on towards the trees. Julia looked back at the silhouette of her father standing in front of the oubliette building.

-0-0-0-

They stumbled through the trees into the night. There was no moon and the darkness was absolute. The stars, had they been in the mood to notice, were bright and in their millions with no light pollution to spoil the view.

But Reid was slowing down now. The groin pains he was experiencing were starting to spread across his abdomen, and he was finding walking difficult. Julia was tiring, and Hotch was still sleeping.

Reid stopped.

'Can't carry on' he said. 'Hurts too much.'

Carefully they laid Hotch down on the bracken and sat either side of him.

'Is it hurting?' Julia asked Reid.

Reid nodded and lay back on the fronds. He closed his eyes, and didn't notice Julia had moved until he felt her undo his trousers.

'Hey!' he shouted, sitting up. 'What are you doing?'

'I'm going to help you. Now lie down and do not move.'

Reid did as he was told, and Julia began to pull out the tubules. Reid bit down on his lip as it felt as if his insides were being pulled out. His hips lifted off the ground as the first one slid painfully out of his skin. By the time she started on the fourth, he was crying with agony.

'Please, no more.' he said.

'I've almost done.' she said, and slowly another pulled out.

Reid made a. 'Mmmmm...' sound and he tasted blood in his mouth.

'One more.' She said, and carefully pulled the last one free.

'They might bleed a bit.' she said. But there was no answer. Reid had passed out.

_Wonderful..... in the middle of the night, in the woods, pitch darkness, and two unconscious men!_

She laid back on the soft bracken and looked up into the sky. Imagination wasn't encouraged in the village. Only sadness and disappointment ever came from being imaginative. She understood now that it could draw people away from the village, and the elders never allowed that.

Julia thought back to the time that she realised how important she was to the village, being the last 'perfect' baby to be born there. So why had her father allowed her to leave? The whole situation worried her.

Why had it been so easy to leave?

That was when she heard the dogs.

They were still a way off yet, but they were fast and she had to get moving. She stood up and looked at the two men at her feet. She had thrown away so much for them, she could still not quite believe it. She shook Reid.

'Reid, wake up. They've got the dogs out!'

Reid slowly fluttered his eyes open.

'The dogs are coming. We have to go. We will have to leave your friend and run.

'I will not leave him.' Reid replied. 'How could you even think that?'

'I have to go.'

Reid took the gun out of his pocket and checked the clip.

'Stay, Julia. I promise no one will take you back. I will protect you.'

Julia looked at the gun in Reid's hand, then she looked at Hotch lying next to him, and she marvelled at so strong a love that Reid was willing to die at his side rather that run and save himself. She wanted to be part of that love. She sat trembling at his side, as the sound of the dogs got closer.


	8. The Return

**THE VILLAGE  
**Chapter 8  
The Return

"_**A village is a hive of glass, where nothing unobserved can pass" - Charles H. Spurgeon**_

The sound of the dogs got closer, Reid's instinct was to run – to get the hell out before the dogs arrived – but he was in pain and wasn't even sure if he could stand let alone run carrying Aaron.

And Julia........ he needed to protect her too. He raised his gun and waited. In the distance between the trees he thought he saw something move.

-0-0-0-

Two dogs bounded through the trees towards where the fugitives crouched. The man from the oubliette needed to be killed, and the other two needed to be forgotten otherwise the elders would lose all credibility in the village. The three men ran after the dogs. The leading man could feel they were closing in on their quarry by the way the dogs were behaving. They were getting excited and were moving low along the ground, the hair raised on the backs of their necks.

They knew that Reid had a weapon. The second Elder reported them missing from his desk. But they were armed with clubs.

He saw a flash of colour through the trees and called for the dogs to lie down. He crept forward and looked at the two men and the woman.

The one holding the weapon looked pale and sick, the woman looked terrified. The forgotten man was lying on the ground unmoving.

Silently, knowing the forest strip around the village perfectly, he called the dogs, and moved round so that he was at the side of the little group. With a click of his finger, he sent the dogs in.

They were obedient animals, but had not been trained on how to react to the gun. The first dog sank its teeth into Hotch's leg. Hotch screamed, and Reid raised the gun to the dog.

'Call it off or i will kill it!'

A second man was running towards Reid from the other side of the little clearing. He was carrying a club and he raised it above his head and brought it down on Reid's wrist. The gun fell from his hand and disappeared into the bracken. Reid heard bones crack and felt the pain as he tried to find one of Hotch's guns in his pocket. The man with the club relieved Spencer of the two guns.

'You will not kill another of our dogs!'

Julia ran. At first, the man thought of sending the remaining dog after her, but decided against it. There was no where for her to go – only desert was around the village. They would come back for her later.

The man ordered the dog to let go of Hotch's leg, and it did at once. Hotch was moaning in pain but not doing anything, not moving. Reid turned to him and touched his face.

'I am sorry, Hotch. I failed you.'

Hotch opened his eyes and looked across at Reid, and his fingers curled around Reid's hand.

'....not your fault.....' he whispered, and the two were dragged apart.

-0-0-0-

One of the men tied Reid's hands behind him. He treaded a length of a branch between his wrists an lifted it upwards. Reid was bent forwards as two of the men rested the branch on their shoulders. The third man lifted Hotchner off the ground and dragged him with Hotch's arm across his shoulder. The group turned and headed back to the village, accompanied by the dogs.

Julia watched from a distance. When they were out of sight she went to where they had been sitting, and retrieved the gun, she wasn't sure how to fire it but she had seen how Spencer held it and that was how she held it now.

She was torn. She knew that the two would be sentenced to the oubliette, but she had before her the chance to escape and be no part of the village. With a tear in her eyes, she followed the five men.

After about a mile, they stopped to rest. Hotch was dropped onto the ground and Reid was allowed to sit. She couldn't hear what was being said, but when one of the men kicked the helpless man on the ground she grew angry and raised the gun.

All it would take was a pull on the trigger and she could kill someone. She looked at the three villagers. She had known them since she was a baby. Now she was planning to kill one of them. She brought the gun down to her side, and watched for a little while. Reid was saying something, and one of the men hit Reid with the club. He cried out and fell sideways. Again she raised the gun, but again she couldn't shoot a man who had taken care of her when she was a little girl. She threw the gun to the ground and ran back into the woods, tears of confusion running down her face.

-0-0-0-

Reid lay still on the ground. His head was ringing where he had been clubbed, and he wanted to check the side of his head, but his hands were still tied behind him. He looked at Aaron who had not moved since he was dropped onto the forest floor. He hadn't made a sound since the dog bit him, and Reid was afraid he had died. The three men were talking together. Reid tried to move close to Hotch while the men weren't looking at him.

'Aaron, can you hear me?'

There was no response, Reid tried again.

'Please, Aaron, if you can here me, let me know.'

-0-0-0-

Aaron was wondering if maybe he ought to die. He was starved beaten and raped, and attacked by a dog. He wanted to respond to Spencer, who from the sound of his voice was afraid for his life. When he called to him a second time, Aaron opened his eyes.

It was still dark, and there were no bright lights to hurt them, and he peered through the darkness at his friend. He hoped that he could put Reid's anxiety to rest.

He felt hands around his upper arms and he was pulled to his feet. He had no strength and his head fell forwards, his dark hair falling in his eyes. He was being dragged away, and he didn't know why.

'Where are you taking him?' Reid tried to shout, but his voice came out as a hoarse whisper. He tried to get up but was pushed down by the third man.

'Leave him alone!' Reid tried to get up again, pushing against the man trying to hold him down. The man raised his club and knocked Reid into unconsciousness.

So he was unable to hear the cries of his friend as he was abused further by the two men.

-0-0-0-

Julia heard though, and it caused her to pause in her flight. It crossed her mind to go back but deep down she knew she would not be able to kill the men. She thought of her father, and how she had been able to hit him. But that was done in a moment of panic. If she shot these men it would be planned and premeditated.

She couldn't do that. She closed her ears to the terrible screams and carried on running.

-0-0-0-

A few miles east of where Julia was fleeing the village elders, a dune buggy carrying two people was bouncing over the dry terrain. They were searching for a car that had disappeared a week earlier with two of their colleagues in.

'Dave! Over there!'

Dave drove the buggy down the slope to the wreck. His first thought was that there had been an accident. He stopped and he and Morgan got out.

'Oh god, Dave. It is their car isn't it?'

The two men stood back from the car for a moment, both expecting to find Reid and Hotch. Then Dave played his flashlight over it.

'No bodies, Derek.'

With a sigh of relief, the two men aproached the car.

'This has been torched afterwards.' Dave said. There was no accident.' He looked at the front of the car. 'No damage.'

'And they had the roof up – see how the struts have survived the flames, they are upright.'

'Now why on earth would they have the roof up? This is the Nevada Desert!'

'Sandstorm? I'll get Garcia to check.' Morgan got out his phone.

'Offside door is open.' Dave said, crouching and examining the lock. 'It doesn't look as if it was blown open. The lock is still intact.'

Morgan leaned into the car. 'They had the heater on.' He frowned in confusion.

'So', said Dave, 'they were driving off road roof up and the heater on in the Nevada Desert. Then the both got out of the car on the same side, and left the door open.'

Morgan turned a full circle. 'And went where?'

-0-0-0-

The two captives were now having to be dragged through the forest back to the village. Thorns and branches caught Hotch's bare legs and blood dripped onto the brambles and leaves of the forest floor. Reid was semi conscious, and tried to keep on his feet, but he had been hit hard on the temple and he was dizzy and confused. His arms were now tied in front of him and he was being dragged by the rope around his wrists. His captors didn't seem to care if he walked or not, and when he fell the thorns caught the skin of his face and he had no strength to fight.

Reid tried to remember how long they had been there. They would not be missed for a week, when they were due back at work. He doubted that his Mum would raise the alarm. She had a problem with days. And the staff would have just assumed that a case had come up preventing him from going.

He was going to have to rely on the team coming to find them. But the village was not on any map, and seemed to be hidden.

_Dave, Morgan, come for us...... please find us!_

When he could he looked sideways to Hotch, who was not making any attempt to move or save himself. He was bleeding heavily since the last round of abuse and he was in a coma. Reid longed to hold him, to put his arms around him, but the men they were with were relentless and didn't stop again until they were out of the forest and back in the village again.

Reid was just glad that Julia had run away. He would have been of no use to her in this state. He had said he would protect her and as it turned out he had done nothing, and now she was alone out there, only waiting for the dogs to bring her home. He felt hopeless and impotent, but could do nothing.

They were taken to the Oubliette and released next to the grating.

One of the men took the torch off the sconce and held it in front of him. 'As is our custom, you now have the chance to tell us why you think you should not be forgotten.' he said.

Hotch was lying unmoving on the floor. Reid staggered forwards.

'I speak for both of us. We were taken by force and tortured. Anything we say will be ignored now, so I will say nothing to salve your seared consciences.'

'Open the door.' He said angrily.

The jailer, wide awake now, stepped forwards and lifted the grating.

Hotch's inert body was pushed towards the opening.

'No! Don't do this!' Reid pushed his way between the jailer and Hotch. 'Leave him the hell alone.' But Reid had no fight left in him now, and when one of the men swung the club he was carrying, Reid didn't have the dexterity to avoid being hit again. He fell across Hotch, dazed and bleeding from a gash on the side of his head. The two of them were rolled to the edge of the opening and pushed indside the oubliette. There was a muffles crunch as the injured men landed below on the wet stinking floor. The grille was replaced over the opening and the torch returned to the sconce.


	9. Race Against Time

**THE VILLAGE  
**Chapter 9  
Race Against Time

"_**When you take a man's dignity, you steal their very soul." ANON**_

Derek and Dave searched the area at a radius from the car of about a hundred yards, but there was no sign of the missing men.

'There should be some kind of proof they were here.' Derek said in frustration. 'They would have known to leave a sign or something at least to tell us which direction they were walking.'

'There's something wrong about the whole situation.' Dave had his phone out calling Garcia.

'Are there any buildings of any kind within walking distance of here?'

'Nothing that I can see,' she said, 'but there is a patch of land that the satellite won't photograph – some kind of disturbance in the upper atmosphere.'

'Which direction, we'll go and check it out.'

'Roughly north west six miles. I'll send you the co ordinates.'

Dave cut the connection and seconds later they had the co ordinates on their PDAs.

Morgan started up the buggy and they set off over the hot dry terrain.

-0-0-0-

Julia stumbled over the dunes. She had never been this far from the village before and she was utterly terrified. She had been told stories of the outside world, and she didn't want to become part of it, but to return to the village would mean being forgotten. At least this way she was alive.

The elders often went into the world to collect food and supplies, but they never brought anyone back for fear of contamination. They spoke of a fearful place where people were killed and tortured. But then, people were killed in the oubliette.

As she ran and stumbled on, these thoughts were rushing through her head.

But most of all she couldn't get the look in the eyes of the older man out of her head.

-0-0-0-

Reid rolled painfully over onto his front and carefully opened his eyes. Blood from a cut on his forehead had run onto them and he wiped it away with a trembling hand. He blinked, trying to get used to the dim light in the dungeon. His wrists were still tied together and he had landed with his hands under him. He thought one of his wrists were broken. He sat up and tried to undo the knot with his teeth but it was too tightly tied.

He looked around for Aaron.

'Aaron, where are you?' he called softly. He squinted into the darkness, and caught sight of him, laying quite still, his arms outstretched, and bare bloodstained legs. Reid crawled painfully to him.

'Aaron, wake up, please. It's me, Reid.'

Aaron heard him, and wanted to react to him, but he was too beaten down to move. He wanted to clasp Reid's hand but his fingers hurt, and his broken arm was severely damaged. Carefully Reid checked him over. Aaron opened his eyes wide and groaned in pain when Reid touched his arm.

'I'm sorry, Aaron. I'm sorry I hurt you.'

'Is the..... woman here?' he asked falteringly, finding it hard to catch his breath.

'She's ok, Hotch. She escaped.'

'Bringing help .....for you.'

There was a clanging sound above then as the jailer stood on the bars.

'Be quiet down there!' he bellowed, and before Reid was prepares they were sprayed with filthy water. Reid tried to protect Aaron as best he could, but the pressure pushed him over and he landed on his hands. He cried out as loose bones in his wrist moved and the pain shot up his arm to his heart. He rolled onto his back and clutched at his pounding chest. Tears of pain squeezed through closed lids as he fought the pain. Aaron reached out broken fingers to him. Reid lay down beside him and looped his arms over Aaron and hugged him. Aaron pressed back onto Reid and held his hands gently in his. They lay still and hugged each other. Aaron passed out and Reid lay with him confused and afraid of what was going to happen to them now.

-0-0-0-

Julia felt more guilty with each step she took. She had run away from the men that were trying to help her, and even when she had the chance to help them she was too scared to do anything. She was totally exhausted and sat by a tree to rest for a while, but as soon as she was sitting down she fell asleep. She didn't hear the approaching dune buggy or see the two men get off it and approach her.

'What on earth?..........' Morgan said is surprise. 'Look how she's dressed!'

'Certainly not for a walk in the desert.' Rossi said, taking in her thick long skirt and high necked blouse. 'See if you can wake her.'

'Morgan shot him a look as if to say 'Why me?' and gently reached out and shook her shoulder.

'Miss, wake up now. It's not safe for you to be alone out here.'

The girl opened her eyes with a start. She tried to shrink back from him, but she was against the tree and there was no where to go. Morgan stepped back, aware that she was afraid.

'We won't hurt you.' said Rossi. 'Tell us who you are. We can take you somewhere safe.'

'Do you know Spencer?' she asked in a trembling voice.

Morgan put his hand out to help her up. 'We are looking for him and another man. Do you know where they are?'

'It is too late.' She said looking at the ground. 'They have been forgotten.'

'What do you mean? Forgotten?'

'Can you show us?' the older man asked her.

'I have just escaped from there, and I have been running ever since. I do not want to go back, please do not ask me to.'

'Just take us as close as you can, and we'll do the rest.'

They helped her onto the buggy and she sat between them as she guided them across the sand.

'You must stop here.' She said. 'You will not get the car through the forest.'

'Forest?' repeated Morgan. 'What forest?'

'The forest that surrounds our village.'

'There's a village out here?' Dave asked, perplexed. 'We have no record of a village out here.'

'It is a secret village.' she responded gravely. 'No one knows of it but we who live there.'

The buggy stopped and the three alighted.

'See there.' she pointed to the trees that Dave and Morgan could hardly believe they were seeing. 'Those trees are the start of a ring of forest that surrounds our village. Your friends are in the oubliette which is in a low stone and brick building at the edge.' She put her hand on Dave's arm. 'Please, get them out. They are good people.'

She turned from them and walked away back towards the dry hot desert. Dave and Morgan watched her go, both wondering to themselves whether they ought no call her back.

But getting their men out was more important. She was free and they could find her afterwards. They could not force her to stay.

'I'll let Garcia know what we are doing.' Morgan said and took out his phone. 'No service.'

'Then we're on our own.

-0-0-0-

Spencer heard a sound behind him but he didn't look round, He clung onto Hotch vowing he would die before he let anything else happen to him.

But it was not Hotch that they had come for. Two men prised his arms from Hotch and shoved him aside. It was Reid that they wanted. Two held him down on the cold wet ground as the other stripped him.

'You are forgotten – dead. We can do as we please to you. We are deprived of women so we take from you.'

Reid kicked and fought the men, but there were three of them and he didn't really have a chance. But he was not going to let them take what they wanted without a fight.

He glanced over at Hotch, who was lying unmoving where he had been dumped.

_If you can survive this, Hotch, then so can I!_

He raised his foot and kicked the man who was pulling at his clothes in the eye. He howled in pain and let go of Reid's trousers.

'you might end up winning this battle!' Reid said with dignity, 'But the war you will lose.'

The words earned Reid a punch in the mouth and his head cracked back onto the ground. For a moment he was dazed but that was all the time the third man needed to collect himself and resume ripping Reid's clothes off.

Reid squirmed in the hands of the other two men as his clothes were finally removed. The third man held his ankles and twisted him over onto his front. He sat astride the backs of Reid's knees and leaned forwards, biting at his shoulders and neck. Reid fought still, but his movement was restricted. One of the men had realised he had a broken wrist and every time Reid tried to move, the village elder twisted his wrist.

Reid was determined not to scream, but tears of pain mixed with the dirty water on the floor. His head was pressed down onto the ground as the man on his back raped him, and there was nothing Reid could do to resist.

The pain was unbelievable, and he suddenly knew what Aaron had been going through all the time that he thought he was dead.

_Oh god, Aaron I am so sorry – I didn't abandon you. They told me lies – I am sorry!_

When the first rapist had finished, he collapsed in exhaustion onto Reid's back and it was the turn of the next one.

This man was vicious. As he raped he bit into Reid's soft skin and drew blood, and the sight of the blood seemed to excite him all the more.

Reid groaned in agony as this man smashed into him, and blood began to flow. Reid tried to be somewhere else but the pain was too much and he just cried.

This man finished quickly and he changed places with the third.

Again, violent crushing movements, and he dug his fingers into the flesh of Reid's underarms, his nails cutting bleeding crescents in his white skin. Reid moaned softly as the man took his time and Reid endured the pain almost in silence so as not to distress Hotch who still hadn't moved.

When the third man had finished, they pushed him aside. Reid curled on his side and rested his head on his forearms.

Slowly he turned to see what they were doing, and to his horror, he saw that they were starting on Aaron again.

This was more than he could take. Intent as they were on their prey, they did not see Reid stagger to his feet. Reid dropped his arms over the head of the man crouching astride Hotch, and yanked him backwards. He pressed his arms together, using the ropes that tied his wrists as leverage. So full of anger was he that he didn't feel the pain of his broken wrist bones grinding together.

The man made gurgling choking sounds and died. The other two were on Reid in seconds, but not quickly enough to save their fellow.

One held Reid while the other beat his naked body. He tried to not make a sound but he couldn't help but cry out as he endured the beating.

A punch to the stomach, and Reid vomited onto the floor. The second was a kick to the groin, and Reid tried to curl forwards but was being held up and could do nothing to relieve the agony. The punch to the face and his mouth filled with blood. He felt his teeth loosen and he coughed blood. The man jabbed him in the solar plexus and took Reid's breath away. As his nervous system reset, and he couldn't breathe, the man chopped Reid in the throat. Reid fainted with the shock, and the man holding him let him drop to the floor, helpless in a bloody and beaten heap.

His face to the side, he forced open his swollen eyes and looked for Hotch. He wanted to get to him before they did anything else to him.

But the two men silently picked up the body of their friend, and climbed the ladder out of the oubliette leaving the beaten men in the filthy hole where they were going to die.

Pain in every movement, Reid dragged himself over the floor to Hotch and wrapped his arms around him and drew him close. Hotch didn't move this time, and soon Reid was unconscious as he held the cold body of his friend.


	10. Reunion

**A/N A bit shorter today – I am so tired!**

**THE VILLAGE  
**Chapter 10  
Reunion

_**When in Rome do as the Romans do – old English proverb**_

Morgan and Rossi entered the forest with a certain amount of trepidation. These trees shouldn't exist. The Nevada desert was quite large, (Reid could tell you exactly how large) but not large enough to hide a forest and a village. They both felt wrong, but neither voiced their feelings.

The forest floor was quite overgrown, and like Julia not being dressed for a walk in the desert, they weren't dressed for walking through the forest. The plants seemed almost alive in the way they stretched out their fingers and caught hold of bare skin when ever they could. It wasn't long before they were both badly scratched and wishing they had jackets with them. It wasn't long though before the trees thinned out and the forest changed to more temperate woodlands. They stopped short of the village and watched for a few moments before entering. Neither had got used to this yet, and didn't quite understand what they were seeing.

It looked like a cross between an Amish village and a medieval English town.

In the middle of the Nevada Desert.....

Dave took out his phone and took some photographs – no one would believe it!

'Let's go and introduce ourselves.'

The two men stepped out of the trees. The people on the green gradually became quiet as they noticed their visitors one by one. A man stepped forwards out of the crowd. He was wearing a long coat and carried a club in his left hand. Rossi stepped forward and extended his hand. The man shook hands with his right hand while he swung the club with his left. The last thing he noticed before his head was cracked open was Aaron's gun on his belt.

Morgan pulled his gun and pointed it at the head of the attacker. The crowd closed in behind him.

'Go ahead', he said, 'and shoot. But take a look around and see how many of us you can take out before you are killed where you stand.'

Morgan slowly lowered his weapon and dropped it on the floor. It was picked up by one of the villagers..

'Your sort is not welcome here, but now that you have found us, you and your 'familiar' will be kept in holding until we know how to dispose of you.'

Morgan was grasped by the arms from behind, and dragged away. Dave was pulled along the ground and both men were thrown into a small stone built hut by the green. As soon as the door closed, leaving them in pitch darkness, Morgan crawled over the floor to find Rossi.

Dave was out cold. Morgan touched the side of his head and felt blood. He checked his pulse and it was just a little faster than normal. He took off his shirt and rolled it into a pillow to support Dave's head, and he sat leaning against the wall, waiting for him to come around.

'He's got Hotch's gun.' Dave said into the darkness. Morgan crawled over to him.

'You ok Dave? We have to get out of here, get Hotch and Reid, and go.'

'We at least know they were here.' Dave sat up. 'Do you have your gun?'

'No they took it.'

'Mine too.' Dave said. 'So we use our wits. Let's go.'

Shakily he stood on his feet. He was glad it was dark and Morgan couldn't see how much pain he was in. Morgan was at the door. It was locked but they expected that. Morgan stood back and ran at the door, hitting it with hios shoulder. The first time the door didn't move, but it did the second time. The third time Dave heard a splintering sound. The two of them pushed the door and it opened.

Night was on their side – a strong moon shone in the sky, and they ran silently to the trees, after pushing the door closed.

'How did the woman describe the oubliette building?' Morgan asked.

'Brick and stone, at the edge of the village.'

'So we circumnavigate the village until we come across it. By the looks of it all the other buildings are of wood.'

'Except our little prison.' Dave said. 'How's the shoulder?'

'About as good as your head.' he answered.

Carefully, keeping to the shadows, the two men crept around the edge of the village. It was Morgan who saw the Building they were searching for first.

'So how do we get in?'

'Through the door. We might need your other shoulder.'

They bent forwards and ran to the door.

It was a heavy wooden door. Morgan expressed doubt that he would be able to break it open.

It was Dave who turned the handle and pushed it open.

-0-0-0-

Aaron and Spencer hadn't moved. Aaron was breathing shallowly and Spencer tried to feel the beating of his heart with his hands against his chest, but it was too weak for him to find. He could feel the warmth of flowing blood between them, and was aware of his own blood loss.

Somehow, he had to get Aaron away from here, but he had no idea how he was going to do it. There was no way out of the oubliettes until the men came to take what they wanted from them, and then the ladder would be lowered. That was their only chance of escape.

But there would be three of them, and he had no chance against three opponents.

He rested his head in Aaron's matted hair and tried to think They could only come down thwe ladder in single file. That is when they are the most vulnerable. As soon as the ladder is down. He crawled to what he thought was the centre of the room. He could see the flickering shadows of the torch on the floor. He hated leaving Hotch – He had to prise his fingers off him, and he made a small sound of protest as he left him alone on the cold hard floor.

Aaron instinctively curled his body protectively. Reid crouched in the centre of the room.

There was a sound above him. The sound of the door opening. Hotchner cringed at the sound. He knew what followed. Surely it hadn't been a whole day yet – they only came once a day.......

Sounds of people talking, the clanging sound as the grating was dropped back, and the scraping sound of the ladder as it was lowered.

Reid was ready. He was ready.

-0-0-0-

The smell in the hovel was overpowering – smells of death and the near dead and human waste. The jailer was surprised to see the two strangers – he knew they weren't from the village. Rossi walked up to him confidently as if he had a question for him,

'Excuse me sir, we seem to have got lost.'

and the smiling jailer got a punch on the nose.

'Quickly, Derek, open the hatch, I'll get the ladder.'

Morgan opened the grating and let it drop back. Dave took the torch from the sconce and lowered the ladder and began his descent into the hell hole. He was almost reached the bottom when something jumped at him. He dropped the torch and hands around his neck tightened, and the rope that held the hands together pressed into his throat.

His hands went to the ropes, and pulled at the arms pressing either side of his neck. he managed to choke out, 'Derek.... help...' as his vision, such as it was in the now pitch dark room, started to fade.

Morgan skid down the ladder and dragged Reid off Dave, who collapsed in a heap in the dirt and squalor on the floor. Reid jumped at the second man. He thought the first was incapacitated. This second guy was strong though, and he no longer had surprise on his side. The big man held a squirming Reid by the upper arms and shook him.

'Reid, it's us. Dave and Morgan!' he shouted at his stunned colleague. 'Now are you going to let me check on Dave?'

'Dave and Morgan?' Reid repeated, not sure if he understood. 'Oh god I'm....'

'Never mind that.' Morgan said, letting go of Reid and going to Dave's side. Dave was recovering and was on his hands and knees, coughing onto the floor.

'Now where is Hotch? Is he here?'

'Over here.' Reid said, thinking he was hallucinating. Dave and Derek went to his side and lifted him between them. He was unconscious, but they couldn't help him until they could see what they were doing.

Rossi went up the ladder first, and Reid followed him. Morgan lifted Aaron onto his shoulder and carried him out of the oubliette.

The jailer was still out cold, and they left the building.

The position of the building, right close to the forest ring, made it easy to escape to. They ran to the trees and threw themselves down in the bracken.

The sun was starting to rise, and the eerie night shadows were slowly being replaced by the colours of day. They laid Hotch out on the ground and checked him. A head injury, broken arm and collar bone, multiple fractures of the fingers. Internal bleeding from multiple rapes, and ulcers and sores on his legs. He was breathing, although not smoothly, and he had a strong but erratic pulse. He was still wearing the coat, although it was now ripped and filthy. Reid was wearing a torn shirt. Reid took it off and wrapped it around his hips and paced.

'We can't stay here.' he said. 'They have dogs.'

Dave stood up, rubbing his neck.

'Let's move then, we need to keep going.'

Gently Dave lifted Hotch. He was feeling dizzy still from the crack on the head, and being throttled by Spencer. As they walked through the woods, he glanced at him Rossi was surprised that Reid had the strength. For field work agents had to pass certain physical tests – but still, Dave always assumed he had a way of passing without actually doing anything. He had definitely underestimated the boy!

The trees got bigger and closer together as they traversed the ring, and it wasn't easy to keep together. They heard the dogs in the distance, and they all thought at the same moment that they had no weapons. Morgan pulled a thin branch off a tree and as he walked he pulled leaves and shoots off it. He would go down fighting. They were not going to take him again so easily.

They continued on, the sounds of the dogs quickening their pace, and behind the dogs, the sound of the crowd following them.


	11. The Buggy

**A/N warning to PB – fluff alert!!!!**

**THE VILLAGE  
**Chapter11  
The Buggy

'_**The truth is out there.' – Fox Mulder**_

Dave was tiring fast. The blood from his head wound was getting in his eyes and Hotch seemed to be getting heavier. Although he hadn't eaten for a week, and was showing signs of malnutrition, Dave was weakened by the crack on the head and Reid's attack and was finding it hard to carry Hotch any further. His throat hurt and he felt sure that the bruises were coming out now.

'I have to stop.' he said, sinking to the ground. Morgan turned back and took Aaron in his arms.

'It's not too far now, Dave. Can you do it if I carry Hotch?'

Reid reached out his hand, and Dave took it. With their arms around each other, they slowly moved on to where the buggy had been left.

Reid was puzzled. He couldn't understand why the dogs hadn't caught up with them yet. The sounds seemed to be getting fainter. Were they giving up and letting them get away?

Morgan had gone on ahead, and for some minutes he was out of sight. Then he returned without Aaron.

'The buggy's gone.'

'I suppose the woman took it.' Dave said. We need to get Reid and Hotch to a hospital, and fast.'

'Reid, Hotch and Rossi, i think.' Morgan said. 'You three remain here. I'll walk until I can get cell service and call for help.'

He helped Reid and Rossi to the rock formation where he had left Hotch lying in the shade.

'Stay here, I won't be long.'

Dave and Spencer watched Morgan until he was out of sight. Dave checked Hotch. He was still alive but deeply unconscious. Dave was concerned for him. Reid was concerned for Dave.

'How's the neck?' Reid asked.

Dave turned to him.

'It's fine, don't worry. I can hardly blame you for what you did.'

'The villagers were raping Hotch. He was going to die. I thought you....'

'I really am ok.' he said, touching his neck. 'It probably looks worse than it is.'

Reid sat down with his hands covering his face.

'Did you see the grave on the green in the village?' Reid asked. Dave nodded. 'They told me it was Hotch's grave. They told me he was dead, and all the time they were starving and raping him, and I did nothing. I let it go on. If he dies, if..... It will be because of me.

Dave sat beside him, close but not touching. 'Were you drugged?'

'I think so, but I don't know how. Even when I refused food I still felt as if they were drugging me.'

'Then you can hardly blame yourself, can you.'

'They gave Hotch a picture of me at the funeral. He must have been devastated. And now, because of my stupidity, he could die.'

'He's alive, Reid. And whatever happens, I know he wouldn't want you to beat yourself up over it.'

'I'm in love with him, you know.'

'I know.'

Reid shot him a surprised look but continued, 'I was going to tell him on this holiday. I doubt if he would have responded as I would have wanted, but I needed to tell him.'

'Tell him now.'

Reid looked at Dave in astonishment.

'Go ahead.' Dave said. 'I'll go for a walk.'

Reid smiled at Dave – his first smile for a week.'

-0-0-0-

Reid crawled to Hotch's side, and took his hand in his.

'Hey, Hotch. It's Spencer.'

Hotch sighed softly, and his eyes fluttered open.'

'Hey.' Reid said.

'Hey.' Hotch whispered back. He tried to smile but he coughed. Reid lifted him so that he was sitting with his back to Reid, his head resting on his chest. Reid wrapped his arms around Hotch, and rocked slightly.

Hotch closed his eyes and Reid felt him relax against him.

'I need to tell you something, Hotch.'

Hotch held Reid's hands tightly. His own fingers were smashed, but he found the streengeth to curl them around Reid's.

'I'm in love with you, Hotch.'

There was a moment of silence. Reid thought his heart would burst out of his chest. Then Hotch spoke.

'I knew already, Spence. But I'm sorry; I just can't love you in that way.' He leaned to the side so that he could look into Reid's wide hazel eyes. Reid felt as if he was swimming in Aaron's dark ones.

'You will always be important to me, and I see you as a very close friend, and as a friend, I couldn't love you more.' There were tears in Reid's eyes as he stared down at the man he loved more than life itself. He just wanted to embrace Hotch and never let him go, but he couldn't.

'You don't hate me?'

'How could I hate you, Spence? I would die for you. But I can't give you the love you want, need even. I am so sorry. Could you accept my friendship?'

Now Reid did embrace Hotch. He wrapped his arms around him and held him close.

'Of course. Any aspect of your love for me I can accept.' he kissed Hotch lightly on the temple. 'Thank you for not hating me. Hotch. Hotch?'

Aaron slumped against Reid. The effort of conversation had been too much for him in his condition, and he had fainted. Reid's tears flowed freely as he held onto the man he loved.

-0-0-0-

Dave walked towards a downward slope. He wanted to be out of earshot. He stood at the top of the slope and looked out over the desert. The last few hours had rushed by so quickly he had not had the chance to evaluate what had happened. The village in the desert needed to be investigated. The ones in charge needed to be brought to justice for kidnapping and attempted murder, possibly actual murder too. He took out his phone and checked the photographs of the forest and the village that he had taken. There was something strange about the pictures; they were blurred and the colours weren't right. Still, he thought Garcia could do her stuff and enhance them.

He put away his phone and looked down the hill. That was when he saw it. He started to run down the hill, and slipped over in the dry sand. He slid the rest of the way on his back.

The buggy was upside down in a thicket of dead and dried up bushes. He got down on his knees and looked underneath it. The first thing he saw was the bloody stain in the sand, but there was no one in the buggy.

He thought it likely that the woman had taken it, crashed it, and run. If she was in the desert, he was not optimistic that they would find her. As soon as cell service was active again, he would alert the LVPD. It looked by the amount of blood that she was hurt quite badly. She needed help.

-0-0-0-

Morgan walked through the dry air with his cell phone held out in front of him, waiting for service. He felt as if he had been walking for miles, when it finally beeped to tell him he was in a service area. He straight away called Garcia.

'Hey Baby Girl!'

'Morgan where have you been? We've all been worried sick here!'

'It's a long story, Honey Babe. I'll tell you over drinks. We found Hotch and Reid, but they need an ambulance. Can you get us a helicopter to pick me up and I'll take it to the others.'

'I'll do that for you, Sweetheart. Are you ok?'

'Perfect!' he said, rubbing his shoulder. 'It's everyone else!'

'The air ambulance is on its way. Stay where you are and it will be there in a few minutes.'

'Thank you Sweet. I'll be home soon.'

Garcia blew him a kiss and cut the connection. Morgan sat down on a rock and thought over what had just happened.

Like Rossi, he hadn't had time to really think about what had happened. The village from what he saw was old, and had been there for a long time. They were not Amish, they were too violent and ready to carry guns, but they could be a religion of some kind, a break away sect perhaps. He had noticed that there were no children. If they had been cut off for a long time, they were probably so in bred that they couldn't conceive now. He wondered if that was why they abducted Reid and Hotch. Then why treat them so badly?

He needed to find out more from Reid. It would be a while he thought before Hotch could talk about anything.

He heard the whump whump of the helicopter blades, and he stood on the rock and waved his arms painfully in the air.

-0-0-0-

As the air ambulance touched down near where the others were waiting, Morgan was ready to jump out and help them into their rescue helicopter.

Dave had seen the approaching air craft from where he was looking over the wreck of the buggy, and with great difficulty, ran back up the sandy slope and back to Reid and Hotch. He was starting to feel sick and he thought it was probably the head injury. So he was glad to see the helicopter.

They lifted Hotch into the ambulance first. Reid sat with him gently cradling his broken fingers in his hands.

'Is he going to be alright?' Reid asked the medic.

'He is very ill.' he answered, as he slid a tube into his throat. They pulled off his coat and attached a heart monitor to his chest. They strapped him down and wrapped him to try to slow down the constant bleeding. 'He has some serious internal injuries. Do you know how this happened? Has he been raped?'

Reid nodded. Just minutes ago, he had been talking, now he was closer to dying than he ever was. They splinted his arm and immobilised his shoulder. They strapped his fingers together and put up a saline IV. Rossi was sitting in the helicopter now, and a medic was stitching his head wound. He was going to have to have an MRI scan at the hospital. Dave was being sick and they were worried about a bleed. Reid refused treatment until Aaron was stable, and Morgan still insisted that he was fine. The helicopter lifted off the desert floor.

'Hey, Aaron, we're home free.' Reid said. Aaron didn't speak, but his heart gave up the fight and v-fibbed. At once the paddles were applied to his chest and his body jumped. It took three tries before his heart showed normal sinus rhythm and Reid realised that he had been holding his breath.

Rossi and Morgan had watched in silence as Hotch was brought back again and again on the short flight to the Las Vegas Hospital. Reid had just told this man that he loved him. He prayed that that wasn't the last thing he said to him.

'Come on, Aaron.' Reid whispered as the 'copter landed on the roof of the hospital. 'You're there now. No one will hurt you again. You're safe.'

The OR team was waiting on the roof to take Hotch straight to the OR to stop the bleeding. His blood volume was low, and the wide bore saline drip could only do so much all the time he was loosing blood.

The other three waited in the relative's room for news.

'We've been here before.' Reid said. 'I can't believe that he could die now, when he's safe.'

Rossi sat by him again.

'Did you tell him?' he asked.

Reid looked at him and nodded.

'Then he has something to come back to.'

'What was that place?' Reid asked.

'I don't know. But I have a feeling that when we go back to find it, to arrest the kidnappers and rapists, it won't be there.'

Dave got his phone out and showed Reid the photographs he took. They seemed to be fading.

'By the time we get home to Quantico, I think the pictures will have faded totally. There will be nothing left for Garcia to work with.' he said. 'We will have no proof that the place even existed.'

'But there are four of us, Rossi. They have to believe.'

'Whole squadrons of witnesses saw the Foo fighters, and they weren't believed. Hundreds of people have seen UFO's and not been believed. What makes you think we will be?'

Before Reid could reply, a Doctor came into the room.

'Are you here for Mr Aaron Hotchner?'


	12. Retribution

**THE VILLAGE  
**Chapter 12  
Epilogue - Retribution

"_**I think that if the beast who sleeps in man could be held down by threats of any kind, whether of jail or **__**retribution**__**, then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer, not the prophet who sacrificed himself.**__**" – Boris Pasternak**_

There was some good news. Hotch had come through the surgery and was recovering. Physically at least. He was going to need the support of his friends to recover mentally.

Now it was time for Reid and Rossi to be seen.

Rossi went down for an MRI.

He knew what one entailed, but he found the loud noises and the confined space distressing. There was a high chance of there being a sub dural bleed, and that was why he was being so sick.

They called in their neural surgeon to check, but the results were pretty overwhelming. There was a bleed and he needed to have the surgery.

They wheeled him out of the MRI tube, and he sat up.

'I'm afraid you have a sub dural haematoma which needs to be removed. It requires surgery straight away.'

Dave nodded and swung his legs round so that he was sitting on the edge. He went to get off the trolley when his world went dark and he passed out. One of the orderlies managed to catch him before he hit the floor.

Now the surgery was urgent.

-0-0-0-

Reid allowed himself to be examined briefly. He refused a rape kit, and just wanted to be left alone. The doctors said there was no lasting damage, but he would hurt for a while. He was relieved to get away so he could visit Aaron.

Aaron was on the ward now, and breathing on his own. Reid sat with him and gently held his hand. Morgan stayed for a while but he was anxious to track down the village. There were some unanswered questions and Morgan needed them answered.

-0-0-0-

Julia wandered in the desert, the wound on her forehead bleeding into her eyes. She desperately needed a drink, her tongue was sticking to the roof of her mouth. Her head hurt. She hadn't imagined that working the carriage would have e so difficult. When it rolled down the hill she thought she was finished, but she managed to survive – only to die of thirst in this god forsaken place.

She knelt in the sand and hung her head. It was so hot, and the little water she still had was soaking her clothes. She clawed at the dry ground.

'I'm so sorry, Father.' she whispered and fell forward into the sand.

-0-0-0-

Morgan was at the admissions desk.

'I don't know her name. She would have been found wandering in the desert, with injuries from an RTA.'

'I am sorry, but we can't track a patient with that description, and if you are not a relative.....'

Before she got any further she was looking at Morgan's ID at the end of her rather big nose.

'This is FBI business, and the woman is a suspect in a kidnapping and accessory to murder. So I will ask again, has this woman been admitted, or not?'

The woman's lips went small and cross. She was in charge of this desk and she was used to people trying to intimidate her. She stabbed at the keyboard wishing it was the big angry black man she was stabbing at.

'There was an admission of a Jane Doe earlier on today. She was found unconscious in the desert by a group of walkers'

'And she is where now?'

'ICU.' the woman said and turned her back on Morgan.

Morgan resisted the urge to swear at her and thump her desk.

He quickly made his way to ICU where the young woman was recovering from her ordeal. She was on a saline wide bore drip, and glucose. She was still asleep.

He called the PD and asked that she be guarded as a suspect in the kidnapping of two federal agents. They weren't too happy with the request but they complied, which was all Morgan wanted. He didn't want to be mates with them anyway!

He called Garcia.

'There is nothing there.' Garcia said. 'Just the blurry image off the satellite showing more desert.'

'But there has to be something.' Morgan said looking at the screen. 'I was there in a village, with people and buildings! It can't just disappear.'

'What about the woman you saw?'

'She's unconscious in the ICU at the moment. She seems to be the only link we have. Hotch Reid and Rossi are all hurt, but that apparently isn't proof enough!'

'So what are you going to do?'

'I am going to get Reid, some weapons, and a new buggy, and I am going out there to find the hell hole.' he said. 'My god, Garcia, you should have seen it. They had Hotch shut in a filthy dungeon, and they starved him. I need to find them. They need to be punished. Hotch may never recover fully from what they did to him.'

-0-0-0-

Reid didn't really want to go with Morgan. He preferred to sit with Hotch and hold his hand. But he equally wanted to retribution for Aaron. They collected a gun each from the police station, and borrowed a buggy from them.

'Are you sure you are well enough?' Morgan asked as Reid limped painfully over to the buggy and climb in.

'I'm well enough to find out who hurt Hotch so badly. I want to get them, and bring them to justice.' he answered sincerely.

-0-0-0-

There was nothing.

No village, no people, no murderers or rapists.

Just desert and sand and dried up vegetation.

Back at the hospital, they waited for Dave and Aaron to wake up, and Julia too. Reid sat with Aaron and Dave, Morgan with Julia. She was no longer a suspect – simply another victim.

It was the early morning of the second day that she woke up.

'You won't find the village unless I am with you. There has to be someone from the village for it to open up.'

Morgan looked puzzled. 'Where is it then.'

'It's no where. It can detect one of its own and appear, or if there is someone it wants, it can draw them.'

'Is that what happened with Spencer and Aaron?' he asked. Julia nodded.

'I don't know how it works, but if I go back with you, you will find it.'

'You can't go anywhere yet. When you are well, we will ask you to help us find it. The people who hurt my friends need to be brought to justice.'

'You will forget them? Do you have an oubliette here?'

Morgan shook his head. 'We are humane with our criminals. We don't murder them.'

'Then I will help you when I can.'

-0-0-0-

Dave was the next one to wake up. Apart from a really bad mother of all headaches, he was ok. He still had a sore throat, not improved by his recent intubation, and near death experience at the hands of Reid. His neck still showed the rope burns at the front and wrist bruises at the sides. Reid tried not to look at them.

'Don't worry!' Dave croaked, his eyes laughing at Reid's discomfort. 'You did what you could to protect a colleague – at the risk of wiping out another!'

Reid's discomposure was so manifest, Dave laughed.

'Don't make me laugh!' he said in agony. 'It hurts!'

Reid smiled.

-0-0-0-

The next day, Julia's electrolytes and blood count was back to normal and she was well enough to leave the hospital. She had no where to go except back to the village. Together with four armed policemen, she and Morgan were returning to the wreck of the buggy.

'What about my father?' she asked. 'He helped Aaron and Reid to escape.'

'We want to bring the rapists and killers to justice, Julia. I don't think your father is either. He will be brought back to Vegas for a trial, and if he is not guilty he will be released.' Morgan said as they travelled across the hot dry terrain.

'There!' she said suddenly.

In front of them at the limit of their vision they could see the line of trees that marked the edge of the village. The cops gaped in astonishment.

'What the hell?..........'

'Julia,' Morgan said, 'Do you want to return to the village now?'

She nodded. 'Everything I know is there, but maybe now its existence is out in the open and so many people know about it, there can be cultural exchanges, and our village won't die after all.'

'I hope so.'

Julia waited by the vehicle while the five armed men formed a line and walked through the trees to the village. Like before, the villagers slowly became quiet as they noticed the newcomers. Morgan stepped forwards.

'We wish to see the village elders.'

-0-0-0-

Rather unwisely, a record of those who had 'visited' the forgotten had been kept by Carley in his office in the Elder's Suite, so it was relatively easy to round up the nine men who were accused of raping Aaron and Spencer. One of the cops Mirandized them one at a time. The others looked on in amazement.

It would be a difficult trial, since these men had no knowledge of normal laws, and in their culture what they had done was acceptable. Once someone was 'forgotten' they no longer existed and so had no rights. It was doubtful whether they would be found guilty.

But the entire village needed to be rehabilitated – a fascinating job for the sociologists and anthropologists.

Morgan almost wished he could get involved with that aspect of the case.

Almost.

-0-0-0-

There was something more important to him, and closer to his heart.

Aaron.

He wanted to be there for his friend, and help him through the trauma of recovery.

When Hotch woke up on day five, all his friends were there taking it in turns to be with him. When his eyes fluttered open for the first time, it was Dave who was sitting by his bed.

'Good to see you again, Aaron.' he said.

Hotch turned his dark eyes to his friend. 'How long?' he whispered.

'Five days.' Dave said. He took his friend's hand. 'Aaron, I'm here for you. If you want to talk, I'll listen. If you don't want to talk, I'll sit with you. I'll be what you want me to be for as long as you need me. I'll be here for you no matter what.'

Hotch said nothing but his eyes welled with tears and his broken fingers curled carefully around those of Dave. Slowly he turned his head away and cried bitter tears onto the pillow. Dave kept hold of his hand and sat quietly by his bed.

It was going to take time. But with friends who really cared for him, Aaron was going to make it.

-0-0-0-

**END**

**A/N Next story is called 'THE GAME' First chapter tomorrow. Thank you my reviewers. Love you all! **


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